AUSTIN (KXAN) — We could be looking at record breaking numbers when it comes to early voting across central Texas.
In Travis County, for example, records show that more than 20% of the more than 925,000 registered voters have already cast their ballot in week one of in-person early voting.
While lines in the greater Austin area were a bit shorter Saturday, numbers show that people have already come out in droves to cast their ballot. Those numbers are only expected to increase with early voting running through Friday, Nov. 1.
“I think we will see a huge voter turnout in 2024,” one political expert said.
In Williamson County, around 26,000 people a day are voting early. More than 137,000 ballots have already been cast there, out of more than 447,000 registered voters in the county.
Travis County election officials said that more than 20% of registered voters have voted as of Saturday — more than 177,000 ballots.
“It appears Republicans have embraced early in-person voting,” said University of Florida political science professor Michael McDonald. “In the past, Democrats were the ones who tended to vote in large numbers.”
While the campaigns go into overdrive with a little more than a week until election day, for some their decision is already made up. That’s part of the reason, experts argue, early voting is a popular choice.
“Folks who know who they’re voting for up and down the ballot want to go ahead and bank their ballot and be done with the election,” said Catawba College political science professor Dr. Michael Blitzer.
The good news? KXAN only found one spot in Austin on Saturday afternoon that had close to an hour-long wait. Most spots were 15 minutes or less throughout the day.