Record Early Voting Turnout Numbers

Turnout numbers for early voting are eclipsing past primary voting turnouts in Texas. I think everyone was pretty pumped up about seeing states like Iowa double their turnout numbers this year over 2004, and we were all hoping for the same thing to happen in Texas. But few were expecting the numbers to be this high.

Through the second day of early voting in 2004, we have seen Democratic turnout be from over 70% higher to fourteen times higher in the biggest Texas counties. No, that's not a typo. Democratic cumulative turnout so far increased from 326 voters in 2004 to 4,695 this year, for a just over 1440% increase, in Collin County. No, that's not a typo either. Plano Democrats are turning out in droves so far for early voting.

For those interested in how the Lampson race will turn out, you'll be happy to know that Fort Bend can actually beat that percentage. Democratic turnout is over 15 times greater than 2004 numbers. My backyard of Denton County has seen an 11-fold increase.

Think the big cities may not be as dramatic? Well, hold on to your seats. Harris County has seen a sevenfold increase in early voter turnout to date, as has Tarrant, and Dallas nearly a tenfold increase. Bexar County got over a fivefold bump, beating Travis County's "meager" 440% increase.

Let's put this in another perspective. Harris County's Democratic primary turnout to date has been 19,578 voters. Their Republican primary turnout has been 8,654 voters. Tarrant Democrats have doubled up on their Republican counterparts in turnout, and Dallas Democrats nearly tripled.

In fact, looking at the top counties by population, you'd have to go down to Montgomery County to find a place where Republican turnout is beating Democratic turnout. Yes, including Collin. Yes, including Fort Bend. Yes, including Williamson. All of them have Democrats leading in primary turnout.

Why is this important? It's not like primary votes count in general elections, right?

I'm sure few readers of the Blue will be thinking that, but let's address it anyway. Not only are primary voting numbers indicative of the excitement and dedication of the electorate for a particular party, but every one of those primary voters are going to be people that we can contact out of the state party's voter file and that we can focus our Get Out The Vote efforts come the general election. You can be sure that when we're getting fifteen times the turnout in areas, many of those voters are newly energized Democrats whose names we didn't have previously, but who are eager to turn around the country and elect Democrats. The way things have been going, November's looking like it will be a very exciting month for Democrats.