They’re ahead by 4,116 votes, a major improvement from their position at this time four years ago, when they trailed by 21,179.
Advertisement
Looking around at other states, it’s evident how early voting can reduce long lines on busy election days. So far, slightly more than 665,000 Republican voters have cast ballots in the state, compared to slightly more than 658,000 Democrats.
In Iowa, the early voting period is quite lengthy, lasting from September 29th through November 7th. The upside for candidates and campaigns looking to focus their efforts in the home stretch is radio – a powerful medium that reaches all voters, regardless of where their political affiliations lie. Almost 300,000 Florida voters showed up for the first day of in-person early voting on Monday, new totals from state election officials showed.
With the US presidential election just around the corner, all eyes are on the voting process.
Trump’s suggestion of problems in Texas is all the more unusual because the state is so reliably Republican.
United States Attorney Miller said, “Every citizen must be able to vote without interference or discrimination and to have that vote counted without it being stolen because of fraud”.
A total of 2,509 people voted on Monday and another 2,588 voted on Tuesday. They now hold an 18,120-vote advantage, a paltry amount compared to their 113,222-vote edge at this time in 2008. As always, Republicans are leading in absentee ballots returned in Florida and North Carolina, but not by the margins they had in 2012. This coming Saturday will be the last Saturday to participate in early voting. In addition, the share of the white vote has dropped from 82% in 2008 to just over 77% this year.
Voters also reported long lines in Harris County on Monday.
In the last four elections (2000-2012), no loser has fallen below 45 percent of the vote and no victor has reached 53 percent. While polls show a tighter than normal presidential race, Texas has not voted for a Democratic presidential candidate since Jimmy Carter in 1976 and Hillary Clinton is not campaigning there. Democrats still trail at 19.4 percent, but they’re in an improved position from 2012, when Republicans held a 58 percent to 13 percent lead.
There were some discrepancies during the primary election with precinct numbers being confused for ballot numbers, but Van Wolfe said this issue has been resolved. Three states (Colorado, Oregon, and Washington) now conduct voting entirely by mail. In 2012, 69% of the state’s electorate cast their ballots before Election Day.
A voter complaint about trying to cast a straight-party Republican vote – and noticing that the presidential vote flipped to Democrat – was resolved in Tarrant County before the ballot was cast, election officials say. Her confidence surging, Clinton is also eyeing a new Democratic majority in the Senate. In 2014 voter turnout was only 36.4 percent, and in 2012 it was 57.5 percent. They’re only about 25% today. So far, more than 87,000 people have voted in Mecklenburg County – that includes more than 8,000 absentee ballots.
One other straw in the wind worth noting comes from the very blue state of California, where one analysis shows Latino early voting up 45 percent as compared to 2016.
Texas provides for 12 days of early voting.
Merle King, the executive director for Georgia’s Center for Election Systems at Kennesaw State University, told CNN the machine will be evaluated after the election.
Still, it’s hard to read much into Utah’s statistics.
In the Tennessee House of Representatives 23rd District, State Rep. John Forgety, Republican, will have to defeat Independent Daniel Lee Housley to maintain his seat.
Advertisement
Turnout can be driven up when voters are excited about their candidate, as blacks were to elect Obama – and the Trump campaign is banking his supporters being more enthusiastic than Clinton’s.
