Texas early voting: "I think there are reasons for Democrats to feel good..."
Among the state’s largest counties, eye-popping gains in early voting turnout have been clustered around the capital city of Austin, in El Paso County and in the Dallas area. Hildalgo County along the Texas-Mexico border is seeing turnout nearly 50 percent higher than four years ago, and Nueces County along the Coastal Bend reports a 32 percent jump, as the first week was coming to a close.
In Galveston County, which had the second largest participation rate with 27 percent of registered voters casting early ballots in the first five days, elections administrator Bill Sargent called turnout “phenomenal.” He wasn’t alone.
“This presidential election will probably see the largest turnout in Travis County history,” said elections administrator Daana DeBeauvoir, whose county was far outpacing the rest of Texas with a 101 percent jump from 2012 through five days. Her neighbor to the north, Williamson County, was seeing a boost of more than 80 percent.
In Harris County, the state’s largest, early voting was up about 44 percent. Tarrant County, Texas’ only urban county that went Republican in 2012, ended the week with an early voting increase of 32 percent.
"As you look at it by county, I think there are reasons for Democrats to feel like something good is happening in the Democratic majority counties, including El Paso," said Jim Henson, director of the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas at Austin. "On balance, if you’re looking at these numbers, you’re probably happier if you’re a Democrat than if you’re a Republican, at least thus far."
http://www.elpasotimes.com/story/news/politics/2016/10/29/austin-el-paso-lead-texas-early-voting-surge/92971702/
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