35K-Plus Cast Ballots On 1st Day Of Early Voting In Travis County

AUSTIN, TX — More than 35,000 registered voters cast their ballots on the first day of early voting Tuesday in Travis County, where a whopping 97 percent of all eligible voters had registered to participate at the polls, elections officials said.

Elections officials have long predicted this would be a banner year for voting, particularly given the specter of a consequential presidential election that has drawn intense interest. As early as Monday, a big turnout was all but a foregone conclusion given the record-setting 97 percent registration to vote from among the county's estimated 850,000 eligible voters.

If the first day of early voting is any indication, records in terms of cast ballots also are poised to be broken by the time the early voting period ends on Oct. 30. According to Travis County Clerk Dana DeBeauvoir, 35,873 people voted early in person on Tuesday.

By around 6 p.m., the elections official added, 32,000 people had cast ballots.

Yet even as early as noon, elections officials likely realized they would need to brace themselves for the first-day throngs: According to DeBeauvoir, 14,000 people had already cast their ballots by then.

An election-related milestone was achieved well before people started heading out to the polls on Tuesday, with the aforementioned 97 percent voter registration rate. Travis County Tax Assessor-Collector Bruce Elfant on Monday reported the high level of voter registration via Facebook.

"A record 97% of Travis County citizens (854,153) are now registered to vote!!!" Elfant wrote. "This milestone has been achieved in large part by our dedicated and hard-working civic engagement army of several thousand volunteer deputy registrars. Thanks also to Matt Flores, our rock star Voter Registration outreach coordinator and our entire VR registration staff.”

"Once again I expect Travis County to be the Texas voter registration leader, and beginning tomorrow we will begin to out vote the other 253 Texas counties," Elfant continued. "Now is the time to make your plan to vote," he added, concluding with the hashtag Votetravis.com.

The county clerk reminded voters they are able to print out a sample ballot to take into polling sites as a reference, and can check wait times before heading out to cast their ballots. Cell phones, she added, are not allowed inside polling locations.

The early voting period ends Oct. 30 prior to the Nov. 3 general election. For a list of the nearly 40 polling locations across the county, click here.