Texas Democratic voter participation dipped in primaries, GOP voter turnout increased slightly
Midterm primaries usually don’t rally voters to the polls in the same measure as other elections. True to form, voter turnout for Texas’ “first-in-the-nation” primaries followed this already established trend.
Unofficial results show 11.63 percent of the state’s registered voters cast ballots in the Republican primaries, according to the Texas Secretary of State’s office. On the Democratic side, 6.69 percent of registered voters cast ballots. In the 2018 midterm primary election, 10.16 percent of registered voters cast ballots in the GOP primary while 7.01 percent did so on the Dem side.
That means the Democratic contests this March drew a slightly smaller portion of Texas’ registered voters than in 2018, while the GOP’s share rose slightly. The Republican edge over Democrats in total votes grew by a couple hundred thousand compared to the prior midterm.
But the relatively small drop in primary turnout for Democrats raises questions about whether a new restrictive voter law kept at least some people in Texas from casting ballots—and whether it will have a bigger impact in the general elections in the fall.
Read more: https://www.texasobserver.org/texas-democratic-voter-participation-dipped-in-primaries-gop-voter-turnout-increased-slightly/
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