Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins posted on X yesterday (Monday, Oct. 19) that early voter turnout in Dallas County had hit 63,168 by 5 p.m., surpassing the full day total on the first day of early voting in 2024 by more than 6,500. Then Jenkins asked for “guesses on the final number” for the day by the time the polls closed at 7 p.m.
This morning, CBS News had a definitive answer for Jenkins: More than 76,000 early votes, more than any single day of early voting previously in Dallas County.
UPDATED INFO:
Dallas County Democratic Party
Dallas County voters cast 87,482 ballots on the first day of early voting Monday, setting a new opening-day record for the county and surpassing day one of the 2024 presidential election.
Of those 76,000-plus Dallas County votes, some 3,489 were cast at polls located in the Oak Lawn Branch Library, 4100 Cedar Springs Road, according to a website monitoring Dallas County polling location totals and wait times.
According to that same website, 1,036 early ballots had been cast at the Oak Lawn Branch library as of 12:50 p.m. today (Tuesday, Oct. 20), wait time of less than 15 minutes, despite lines going out the door and down the block.
More than 104,700 people turned out in Harris County yesterday (Monday, Oct. 19), the first day of in-person early voting in Texas, to cast their ballots in the midterm elections. That number easily shatters the previous first-day-of-early-voting record for the state’s most-populous county, which was 63,000, set in the 2017 midterms.
Harris County, by the way, typically trends blue.
Here in North Texas, Collin County and Denton County are both traditionally considered “red” counties. First day of early voting turnout in both of those counties hit high numbers — 34,739 in Collin County, up more than 15,000 compared to first day turnout in 2022, and 34,739 in Denton County, up more than 17,000 compared to 2022. On analyst on Twitter, @TheoElections, said that prior primary voters in those two counties “swung 19.2 points toward Democrats.”
In fact, The Texas Tribune reports this morning that many counties around the state are “reporting record-breaking turnout on Day 1 of early voting.” But Renzo Downey, leader writer for the Tribune’s premium newsletter The Blast, warned that it is “difficult to glean too much from a single day of the early vote.” Downey quoted consultant Derek Ryan, who said, “You could probably ask a consultant from either party, and they would say that increases turnout benefits their side.”
So the take-away from all that: VOTE! Even if it means having to stand in line for a bit, your vote counts.
— Tammye Nash
