More Republicans turned out than Democrats in Dallas County on every day of early voting except Friday last week, according to unofficial results.
Republicans also showed up for early voting in much larger numbers in Tarrant, Collin and Denton counties.
Elections Administrator Paul Adams speculated that one reason people are turning out now is to break a tie is the U.S. Senate race between Republicans John Cornyn and Paxton, with similar interest in the Democratic U.S. Rep. District 33 race between Colin Allred and Julie Johnson.
“As an election official, I would like voters to be equally interested in all issues that are on the ballot and candidate races that are on the ballot,” he said. “But the reality is there are certain races that garner more attention than others.”
Cornyn is the the U.S. senator up seeking reelection this year. Paxton serves as Texas Attorney General and has withstood multiple accusations, investigations and three indictment dismissals in 2024.
He has been endorsed by Donald Trump.
Allred has the backing of Jasmine Crockett, who lost the primary. Johnson has been working toward the passage of the VOTE Act, following Dallas County’s primary voting fiasco, from which many voters alleged disenfranchisement.
Dallas County elections officials reported that a total of 42,833 Republicans and 39,451 Democrats, cast their ballots during early voting.
Both local party chairs in Dallas County agreed to return to countywide polling places for early voting and Election Day, though the Dallas County Republican Party has since ousted its chair for agreeing.
Allen West had said precinct-based voting went poorly during the March primary election, which ended in much chaos, votes not counted and legal action that went up to the state supreme court, with intervention by Ken Paxton’s Attorney General Office.
Though voters can cast ballots at any polling place throughout the county during early voting and on Election Day, the lines and machines will still be separated by party, per the Republican Party’s contract with the county.
There are six races on Republican runoff ballot — down from 56 in the primary — and 11 Democratic races, down from 139.
That makes the ballots and lines shorter, Adams said.
Though daily vote totals are down, the percentage of voters participating is still higher than normal county-wide.
Typically, about 2 to 3,000 total voters would turn out daily.
During that March primary the percentage of more than 1.5 million Dallas County voters surged to about 17.5 percent during early voting and 26 percent overall, including Election Day turnout.
The county’s voter registration and certification team expects the runoff voters to total about 17 percent — about double the historical amount of participation in non-presidential general elections.
Other large counties in North Texas also had surges in voter turnout led by the high-profile Republican U.S. Senate runoff race. There's no Democratic runoff for senate since Texas Rep. James Talarico beat U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett in March, leaving their party's turnout dampened for these races.
Republicans led turnout in Tarrant County with nearly more than 58,000 early votes last week. Over 18,000 Democrats voted early in comparison. That’s the opposite of what happened in March when Democrats outvoted Republicans in the primary by over 30,000 ballots during early voting.
It’s a similar story in Denton County where almost six times as many Republicans voted early than Democrats — 38,928 Republicans and 6,744 Democratic voters respectively.
A total of 42,822 Republicans and 6,842 Democrats voted early in Collin County, according to election data. Republicans outvoted Democrats during primary early voting as well, but by only about 5,000 ballots — a historically slim margin.
Early voting turnout of Democratic and Republican voters in all three counties was higher during this runoff election period than 2024 or 2022 — with the lone exception of the Democratic Collin County runoff in 2022.
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Dylan Duke is KERA's Breaking News Reporter. Got a tip? Email Dylan Duke at dduke@kera.org.
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