For every election, Reba Henry has two goals: Cast a ballot on the first day of the early voting period, and get to a polling location as early in the day as possible.
This year, Henry arrived at southeast Fort Worth’s Charles F. Griffin Subcourthouse at 7:20 a.m. Oct. 21, the first day of early voting. She brought along a camping stool to sit in line, with about 25 voters already ahead of her. After about an hour, she had cast her ballot and was on the road to the rest of her day.
“I just like being part of that first wave for whatever the election is. It doesn’t make any difference what offices we are voting to fill,” Henry, 80, said. “I was surprised that I was so far down the line, but happy that people had the same idea of, ‘Let’s get this done.’”
Henry was one of 367,752 Tarrant County residents who cast a ballot in-person during the first week of early voting from Oct. 21-27, according to data from the Tarrant County Elections Office. That’s 56,435 more than the same period in 2020, a substantial increase due in part to increased voter registration.
Mark Hand, a political science professor at the University of Texas at Arlington, said turnout so far could be the result of Republican candidates, especially at the top of the ballot, mobilizing their party to vote early.
That trend is a major shift from 2020, when voters saw former President Donald Trump verbally undercut other Republicans’ efforts to get members of their party to vote early, Hand said. This year, Trump is participating in a Republican National Committee campaign that encourages people to vote however they can.
“Whereas the Democrats, I think, got pretty used to and comfortable with voting early in 2020 and avoiding the lines that you might see on Election Day, Republicans are just catching up to that,” Hand said. “I suspect that what we see moving forward is … lots more folks are going to take advantage of early voting and treat that as sort of the beginning of Election Day.”
Brandon Rottinghaus, a political science professor at the University of Houston, said Democrats are banking on early voting turnout, especially in swing counties like Tarrant.
“Tarrant County is the last big urban domino to fall for Democrats,” Rottinghaus said. “They’re hoping for a big turnout because that’s the model for them to win Texas.”
Whether the increase in early voters leans Republican or Democrat — or whether the Republican early voters are new converts to the Republican Party or longtime members who decided early voting would be more convenient this year — is a key distinction that remains to be seen, Hand said. If they’re newly Republican, Democrats should “probably be pretty nervous,” he said.
Rottinghaus said that primary voting data for residents who have already voted shows a strong Republican lean at this point. That may change in the second week of early voting, when more urban voters head to the polls, he added.
“Statewide, the way things go is that you’ve got a lot of the rural voters who are voting early, then the numbers eventually kind of fizzle out, because there simply just aren’t that many of them compared to people in big cities,” he said.
Despite the increase in in-person early voting turnout, mail-in ballots are down this year. Numbers Tarrant County reported to the Texas Secretary of State show it receiving a total of 19,469 ballots over the week, compared with 49,775 in 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic led more Texans to cast a ballot by mail.
Overall, 29.57% of Tarrant’s registered voters have voted so far, including by mail. That’s just shy of the 29.78% turnout rate in 2020. That neck-and-neck turnout rate is a far cry from the beginning of early voting this year, where Tarrant County recorded a 38% increase in early votes cast on the first day the polls opened. Tarrant County had 1,212,524 registered voters in 2020; it reported 1,309,456 registered voters this year.
There are several factors to consider when comparing 2020 and 2024 numbers. Gov. Greg Abbott extended the early voting period by six days in 2020, in an effort to prevent large crowds at polling places and stymie the transmission of COVID-19. This year, the early voting period is once again 12 days between Oct. 21 and Nov. 1.
2020 also represented an outlier in terms of the number of mail-in ballots requested by voters. And local elections offices self-report early voting data to state officials, meaning it may be incomplete.
Hand encouraged people to head to the polls during the second week of early voting and not wait until Nov. 5 unless they have to. Voting early allows voters to skip the long lines on Election Day and walk slowly through their ballot and make sure there’s nothing wrong with their ballot or registration, he said.
“Voting early is a lot easier, and people like to get it done,” Hand said. “You don’t have to worry that something’s going to go wrong on the one day.”
Henry said she cast her ballot smoothly without incident, despite warnings of election fraud running rampant through political conversations. Tarrant County elections have been cited statewide as an example of a well-run, secure election system.
In September, elections administrator Clint Ludwig hosted a public test of Tarrant County voting machines to ensure the system’s accuracy. Rottinghaus said the unfounded specter of voter fraud colors the perceived value of voting, and may disincentivize some from heading to the polls.
“I think it will affect mostly Republican turnout,” he said.
Henry said she felt encouraged to see other voters willing to wake up early to vote on the first day, regardless of which presidential candidate they chose to support. She declined to share who she voted for.
“I think we all understand that this election is a little different than any of the others. I think it even outpaces the election of Barack Obama,” Henry said. “We’ve had such a crazy time since 45 ran for president, and I think that many people are trying to get out and show that that is not the type of government we want.”
Rottinghaus noted that in the months and weeks leading up to early voting, Tarrant County became a battleground in several fights over voting access. An effort led by Republican County Judge Tim O’Hare in September sought to remove up to four college polling sites from the county’s list of early voting sites. That effort ultimately failed, with O’Hare being the lone ‘yes’ vote on the measure.
“The prospect of limiting the ability to vote in various places certainly motivates people,” Rottinghaus said. “In general, college students vote in bigger numbers if you make it easier for them to vote. So the placement of those polling locations was very important.”
For Tarrant County resident Lela Nichols, Trump was the driving force pushing her to vote early. The 71-year-old and her husband, Cliff Nichols, 85, voted the morning of Oct. 23.
The couple was hoping to vote curbside, as Cliff has difficulty walking. They tried the Golden Triangle Library branch in north Fort Worth first, but cars were backed into the street trying to park in the small parking lot, Nichols said.
Not wanting to struggle with the crowd, Lela and Cliff changed direction to drive to the former Bursey Senior Center in North Richland Hills, which Lela said was busy but didn’t have a line. Feeling reinvigorated, Lela said she encouraged Cliff to walk inside, where poll workers provided a chair for him to sit while he cast his ballot.
Despite the small setbacks, Lela said she and Cliff were committed to voting that day.
“We’re Trump supporters, so there was no way we weren’t going to vote,” Nichols said. “It’s a rarity if we don’t vote.”
Joanne Dellamura, 58, said she voted Republican her entire life until Trump appeared on the ballot in 2016. Now, she and her husband, 63, vote Democrat all the way down the ballot.
“We voted Democrat, both of us, because we’re not a fan of what the Republican Party is these days,” Dellamura said. “In 2016 … that’s when I changed. I didn’t vote for (Trump) then and haven’t since.”
Dellamura said she voted at west Fort Worth’s Como Community Center on Oct. 21. Although she had a 75-minute wait in line, she said her early voting experience was “pleasant and positive.” She feels “very encouraged” by turnout one week into early voting.
“I think people should be informed and vote, regardless of which way they vote,” Dellamura said. “I’m glad that more people seem to be engaged.”
Cecilia Lenzen and Emily Wolf are government accountability reporters for the Fort Worth Report. Contact them at cecilia.lenzen@fortworthreport.org and emily.wolf@fortworthreport.org.
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