North Texans again swarm early voting centers to cast their ballots
Voters again swarmed Fort Worth-area polling places Wednesday during the second day of early voting, and officials said the region was on pace to break the record for voter participation in any general election.
As polls closed Wednesday, a combined 87,490 people had cast ballots during the first two days of early voting in Tarrant County. As of 6 p.m., election officials were still counting ballots, as voters who were still in line when polls closed were being given time to vote.
How significant is the early voting total so far? When combined with the 35,922 voters who have already returned mail-in ballots, that means 123,412 Tarrant County residents have already cast ballots. That’s 10.3% of the county’s 1.9 million registered voters.
In 2016, when President Donald Trump won election, a then-record 88,085 people cast ballots during the first two days of early voting in Tarrant County. In 2018, which didn’t feature a presidential election but captured voters’ attention with Democrat Beto O’Rourke’s tough challenge against Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, 85,757 people turned out for the first two days of early voting in the county.
But this year, election officials say, the chances of a record-breaking turnout are even greater because there are five extra days of early voting. The early voting period continues through Oct. 30, and the general election will be Nov. 3.
Voters again reported long lines Wednesday at Tarrant County’s 50 early voting centers, with waits lasting longer than an hour at several spots. But on Wednesday there were far fewer reports of extremely long waits — as was the case Tuesday, when some residents stood for up to four hours to wait for their chance to cast ballots.
Election administrator Heider Garcia said that next week he will ask Tarrant County Commissioner’s Court to authorize eight additional early voting centers to handle big crowds in the final days of early voting, which ends Oct. 30. The last days of early voting are often the busiest, he said.
“We’re going to be looking at the turnout this week and, saying, how do we feel?,” Garcia said. “I think, in the long run, we have room to be higher than in any previous election.”
The potentially-record turnout in Tarrant County is part of a growing trend across Texas. In all, more than a million Texans have already cast their ballots for the Nov. 3. election.
In Houston, Harris County records were shattered, with 128,000 people voting on opening day.
Tarrant County election officials are stepping up their efforts to help voters figure out which early voting centers can get them in and out the quickest. The county is featuring an online interactive map, which provides voters with information about wait times at voting centers.
Tarrant County residents can vote at any of the 50 voting centers, regardless of where they live.
But some residents have found the interactive map to be lacking in useful information.
Arlington resident Sari Hughes said the polling location closest to her home wasn’t reporting wait times. Instead, visitors to the website were greeted with a prompt that read “no data available today.”
“I’m disappointed that the wait time dashboard isn’t being updated,” Hughes said in an email. “I was going to monitor it for a safe and convenient time and find that my closest location isn’t reporting data. Not that it is inaccurate, simply not updated for the date. There are very few locations that are current.”
Garcia said he is working with election judges at all 50 early voting sites to ensure they are regularly updating the estimated wait times for voters. Although the information on the county’s website offers a high-tech way for voters to get information about wait times, it depends upon human input — as election workers must record the wait times and enter them into the computer system, based upon their visual observations at the polling sites.
Although several voting centers reported long lines again Wednesday, other polling sites had shorter lines. For example, in Hurst, visitors to the Tarrant County College Northeast campus who arrived around 4 p.m. were able to get in and out of the voting center in about 12 minutes.
This story was originally published October 14, 2020 at 5:57 PM.
