El Paso reaches record turnout for early voting this election year

Automatically translated from Spanish. Read the original in Spanish

El Paso County has recorded historic turnout during the early voting period, surpassing all previous figures for a midterm election. A total of 164,000 residents exercised their right to vote early, a figure that represents an 18% increase over the previous record and 60% more than in the 2022 election cycle.

Polling centers will be open this Tuesday, November 3, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Citizens can go to any of the 120 centers enabled throughout the county. Early voting results will be released at 7 p.m., while election day data will be published as the night progresses.

To surpass the historic record for total midterm election turnout, set at 203,000 voters in 2018, the county needs to reach 40,000 votes during Tuesday’s session. In 2018, turnout on election day was 65,000 people, while in 2022 it was 62,000. The year 2018 marked the previous early voting record, when Beto O’Rourke was the Democratic candidate for the Senate.

A determining factor in these record numbers has been the participation of people who did not vote in recent cycles. According to an analysis of county election data, one in 6 early voters did not participate in the 2024 presidential election. Likewise, more than one in 3 early voters this year did not go to the polls during the 2022 midterm election.

Regarding demographics, 55% of early voters were women, even though this group represents only 51% of the registered voter roll. This trend is consistent with past elections. The gender gap was most notable in the 18 to 29 age group, where women accounted for 61% of the votes cast by that sector.

Older citizens remain the most likely to vote early, as two-thirds of voters were 45 or older. Of the nearly 541,000 registered voters in the county, more than 30% voted early. Although this figure is high for El Paso’s historical patterns, it remains the lowest among the 10 most populous counties in Texas. Nearly half of registered voters over 65 voted early, while less than one in 5 under 30 did so.

Democrats head into election day with a clear advantage. Although just over half of early voters did not participate in the March 3 primaries, among the 47% who did, Democrats outperformed Republicans by a 3-to-1 ratio, a difference of more than 38,000 votes. Historically, since 2018, Democratic candidates in the county have obtained at least 58% of the vote.