Record voter registrations in Travis and Williamson Counties

There are only a few hours left to register to vote in Central Texas. This year has been monumental for both Williamson and Travis counties, the number of registered voters is at its highest.

Whether it's for Clinton, Trump or anyone else on the ballot, this election year is bringing out a record number of people to register to vote.

"I think it's really big because it shows just how divided the country is over the candidates," says Travis County resident.

The hope is that they actually turn out to vote.

"We have a long way to go because Texas is 50th in the nation in voter turnout. We're hoping here in Travis County, we can lead the way back to being a participating society," says Bruce Elfant, Travis County Voter Registrar.
   
The tax office trained more than 3,000 volunteer deputy registrars this past year, which has increased the outreach.

Travis County has already met its goal of registering 90 percent of eligible voters, with more than 700,000 voter registrations and counting.

By midnight, they expect 100,000 more Travis County citizens will be registered to vote compared to four years ago. Travis County is one of the most registered counties in the state.

"It's a combination of things. Certainly the presidential campaign has caught people's attention and for a variety of reasons, more people seem to want to be involved in voting. I think our outreach has gotten a lot more aggressive. We're a rapidly growing community and for years we weren't keeping up with the population growth," says Elfant.

Some people are registering for the first time and their vote holds a special meaning.

"I think immigration reform is really important, just because I know I have family members that would benefit from something like that," says Travis County resident.

Others think this election is different from years past.

"It seems like we've made the presidential election such a tough job. You know, it's hard to find people who would do a good job and actually want the job," says Williamson County resident.

Over in Williamson County they have also reached a record - more than 300,000 registered voters.
They expect that to continue.

"We anticipate the youth vote is going to be higher. We're actually employing more youth in the actual poll working side of things. We have student election clerks who are going to be working this election. They are not quite of age to vote but we feel getting them involved in this process, actually seeing it from the working-end of an election, they'll be poll workers later on and they'll actually be voters later on," says Chris Davis, Williamson County Voter Registrar.

In Travis County:

  • Thundercloud Subs and Alamo Drafthouse will have voter registration volunteers at all of its locations up until 10:00 p.m. Tuesday.
  • Otherwise, you can go to the Travis County Tax Office off Airport Blvd up until midnight.
  • Early voting is October 24th through November 4th.
  • Election day is November 8th.