Saturday is Election Day for jurisdictions holding municipal, school district, special district, bond and/or special elections. Early voting ended yesterday (Tuesday) in most jurisdictions.
Turnout: As we have previously mentioned, there is no requirement for counties to report early voting turnout for the May uniform election, so information is spotty. We have pulled together some reports from around the state:
- Amarillo: Early voting turnout exceeded was the highest in at least four municipal election cycles. Turnout in early voting is just over 6% of registered voters.
- Bexar Co.: Nearly 69K people voted early in person in the San Antonio, which surpassed the early voting total in 2015, resulting in turnout of less than 7% of registered voters.
- Dallas Co.: About 57K people have voted early in person or by mail, which puts early voting turnout below 5% of all registered voters in the county. Around 40% of those early voters cast ballots in Dallas council elections.
- Harris Co.: A little over 20K people voted early. Pasadena City Hall led all polling stations with just over 3,200 voters. Keep in mind that the city of Houston holds November elections.
- Howard Co.: A total of 65 people have voted early – 55 in person and 10 by mail – in the races for Big Spring (D1) and Coahoma (AL) city councils.
- McLennan Co.: About 2,100 people – 1.6% of registered voters – have voted early, which is up more than 70% over 2015. More than half of all early votes were cast in a single location: First Assembly of God Church in the southwestern part of Waco.
- Nueces Co.: A little over 15K people voted early, which is about 8.5% of registered voters.
- Tarrant Co.: Nearly 50K have voted early, which is about 10% ahead of the 2015 early vote total. This year’s early voting turnout already exceeds overall turnout for the May 2016 election, including both early voting and Election Day. Election officials believe turnout may top 10% after Election Day.
- Tom Green Co.: About 3K people voted early for San Angelo mayor and council, which is about the same as in 2015.
El Paso: Former Rep. Dee Margo (R-El Paso) surpassed $200K in campaign contributions with his latest campaign finance report. He has $110K on hand, surpassing his rivals. Businessman David Saucedo is second with $143K raised overall. The other three candidates have raised about $35K combined.
