Travis County surpasses November 2016 total vote turnout
AUSTIN, Texas - Travis County Clerk Dana DeBeauvoir says that Travis County has surpassed its November 2016 total vote turnout.
DeBeauvoir said in a tweet that 486,206 votes have been cast in person and by mail during the early voting period which is more than the total of 477,588 votes in November 2016.
Early voting began October 13 and ends October 30 and Travis County has 37 early voting polling locations. Polls are open Monday-Friday 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. and officials say mega-centers will be open until 9 p.m. Wednesday-Friday. See the full list of locations below and get details here.
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Debeauvoir said so far more than 60 percent of registered voters have cast their ballot. She expects between 77 and 80 percent to do so by the time the polls close on November 3. "I always wished for a 100 percent turn out. This may be as close as I ever get," she said.
Voter demographics appear to have shifted this year too.
"We are seeing in our statistics, day by day, more people vote young. The 18 to 34-year-olds are turning out at higher percentages than our baby boomers. That is unheard of," Debeauvoir said.
"I think that with the Obama election, we kind of saw our power in 2008 and 2012 and so we recognize that younger people probably have more say in matters than we used to think. And, especially now, we see that we could kind of actually make a difference here," said 29-year-old Kay Torriente who voted early in Travis County Wednesday.
Debeauvoir expects another 100,000 voters to turn out on Election Day.