Travis County is seeing record-breaking turnout for early voting
AUSTIN, Texas - Have you voted yet? Thousands of Travis County voters already have, 234,000 to be exact.
“It is a record-breaking turnout for us and it looks like if we persist in getting about 30,000 ballots a day, we are going to beat our previous record of about 77 percent turnout,” said Dana DeBeauvoir, Travis County Clerk.
DeBeauvoir says the majority of these ballots are being done in person despite the pandemic, the presidential election is always a big turnout for the county--but this one is record-breaking, and this is just for early voting, which runs until Oct. 30.
“For the first day we were tied, the second day we were just a little bit high. Every day after that we have been 3,000 or 4,000 above the same days we tracked during the 2016 election,” she said.
She says there are a few reasons we are seeing these numbers at the polls.
“There is also the phenomenon that the post office was damaged, deliberately we think. So there was no way for voters to feel comfortable putting their ballot in a postal box,” said DeBeauvoir.
She also feels voters are excited to exercise that right. “There is a lot of pinned up demand and a lot of people are wanting to make their voices heard,” she said.
2020 Election: Everything you need to know to vote in Texas
Clark Aiken checked on the line at his polling location before coming to vote. “It's a lot less than it was this morning. Before it was way down past Randall's,” he said about his polling location.
He's among the many who did not mind waiting. “You have to have your voice heard. It's the only way we can affect any kind of change in the government,” said Aiken.
“You need to get out and vote that's our job. The line was very long when I got here. It went fast, I got in and out, in an hour,” said Joyce Deal, a voter.
“I got in around 1:00 got out about around 1:30,” said Cindy Goodin, a voter.
If things keep this pace, DeBeauvoir believes Travis County might hit 650,000 votes by election day, breaking the overall turnout for 2016.
DOWNLOAD THE FOX 7 AUSTIN NEWS APP