Study claims big chunk of early voters in Texas are age 18-29
AUSTIN, Texas - With just over a week to go before election day, Travis County has blown all previous voting records out of the water. One study claims Texas is at the top for most young voters early voting.
"We eclipsed our previous number of voters for early voting in the previous presidential election. Now we're going to have an election with a turnout that's going to beat every other record we have and then some," said Travis County Clerk Dana DeBeauvior.
Travis County currently sits at just over 400,000 ballots counted for the November 2020 election. According to a research group called Circle, a big chunk of those early voters are voters between the ages of 18 and 29.
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"When we think about young voters, usually they don't vote because the issues are not as important to them, they don't have as much at stake in the system. In this election, a lot of young people are still staying at home so they're registered where they grew up, the issues are very important, and also young voters now have a lot of time to vote because of early voting," said Brian Smith, a political science professor at St. Edward's University.
The study shows voters between the ages of 18 and 29 are early voting more in Texas than in any other state so far. Smith said these voters could be key to this election since Texas has newly emerged as a battleground state.
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"A big surge of young voters, especially in a close race, going to one party or another can really add that two or three percentage points necessary to win an election," said Smith.
With the election right around the corner, voting numbers here in Travis County are expected to continue to exceed expectations, especially on November 3rd.
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"We were guessing in our original estimates that it would be about 650,000 people who would vote and that that would be a 77% turnout. We may very well break that estimate," said DeBeauvior.