North Texas shattered first-day early voting records on Monday. Voting in Dallas County surged 78 percent over 2012's number. Tarrant jumped 42 percent. Collin nearly doubled its total four years ago.
Turnout numbers surged across Texas: Travis County, home of the state capital, Austin, more than doubled its opening-day 2012 number. Houston's Harris County led the state with more than 67,000 votes, up 20,000 from four years ago.
According to unofficial totals, more than 58,000 people voted in Dallas County, which opened significantly more early voting polling places this year. And more than 43,000 folks voted in Tarrant.
It's unclear, of course, whether that first-day energy will continue through the end of next week, when early voting wraps up. Election officials say interest is typically higher during a presidential election. And this year's Hillary Clinton-Donald Trump matchup has set web-traffic and TV ratings records.
Unofficial totals for the first-day of early voting:
The Texas Tribune provided the following information:
- In Harris County, 67,471 votes were cast, compared to 47,093 votes in 2012.
- More than 58,000 votes were cast in Dallas County compared to 32,512 votes in 2012.
- More than 43,000 votes were cast in Tarrant County compared to 30,133 votes in 2012
- In Bexar County, 35,427 votes were cast compared to 30,087 votes in 2012.
- In Travis County, 35,066 votes were cast compared to 16,378 votes in 2012.
- More than 30,000 votes were cast Collin County compared to 16,531 votes in 2012.
- More than 10,000 votes were cast in El Paso County compared to 8,243 votes in 2012.
- In Hidalgo County, 23,458 votes were cast compared to 11,977 votes in 2012.
- In Denton County, 16,955 votes were cast compared to 12,300 votes in 2012.
- In Fort Bend County, 18,182 votes were cast compared to 13,264 votes in 2012.
Some voters in Denton County were turned away Monday because of voting machine glitches. Some machines were programmed for Election Day, not for early voting — so election workers couldn't log in. Officials brought in new equipment, and voting returned to normal by 10:30 a.m. The elections administrator told KERA that the county will investigate how this happened.
Where you can vote early in North Texas
Zoom in and hover over your county to see where and when you can vote early.
If you have problems with voting
This year KERA is partnered with ProPublica to track voting problems across North Texas and the nation. Help KERA by signing up now. Just text TXDECIDES to 69866. We’ll check in to find out how long it took you to vote and whether you had or saw any problems.
Early voting continues through Nov. 4 and Election Day is Nov. 8.
The Texas Tribune contributed to this report.
