TX Dems Turn Out In Large Numbers For Early Voting

[babylonsister]

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/APStories/stories/D8UU8S300.html

By KELLEY SHANNON / Associated Press

Democratic voters showed up in far larger numbers than Republicans on the first day of early balloting in the Texas primary election as interest mounted in the race between Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Democratic officials and the Texas Secretary of State's Office had said turnout could be high for the March 4 primary, as it has been in other states, because of the close presidential nomination race.

On Tuesday, the first day of a two-week early voting period, 65,293 Texans cast ballots in the state's 15 most populous counties in the Democratic primary, according to numbers released Wednesday by the Secretary of State's Office. That amounted to 0.84 percent of registered voters in those counties.

"Turnout after the first day of early voting is significantly higher than we have seen in recent elections," agency spokesman Scott Haywood said. "The Secretary of State is encouraged by the level of participation by Texans and is optimistic this trend will continue through March 4."

more...

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/APStories/stories/D8UU8S300.html

[my2sense]

1. My son and I Cast Our Vote

yesterday for Obama. I live in a very conservative area, yet the vast majority of those voting were asking for democratic ballots!!!!!

[babylonsister]

2. Love it! Thanks for sharing, and voting! nt

[CoolOnion]

3. Dallas County EV totals by party

Here's the data from the first two days of early voting, from DalCo Elections: http://dalcoelections.org/march42008/earlyvotingreport/index.asp

Democratic Primary: 9,834
Republican Primary: 2,982

:kick:

[sonias]

4. Travis

From KT's blog post on Burnt Orange Report:

Votes cast COUNTYWIDE first 2 days in Democratic primary.

2004: 2,380
2006: 969
2008: 12,872

That's a 440% increase over the 2004 primary.

Votes cast at UT CAMPUS site first 2 days in Democratic primary.

2004: 261 (11.0% of county)
2006: 66 (6.8% of county)
2008: 1,475 (11.5% of county)

* The UT CAMPUS is the highest voting location in Travis County so far casting 30% more votes than the next highest early vote location (although plenty of students vote at other EV locations).
* Both the UT CAMPUS and COUNTYWIDE vote on the *first day* of EV alone cast more votes than each cast for the *entire* early vote period for the 2006 DEM primary.
* The UT CAMPUS has matched in *two days* the entire EV vast on campus in the 2004 DEM primary
* If the vote Thursday matches past patterns, COUNTYWIDE we may cast as many vote in *three days* as the entire EV cast in the 2004 DEM primary.
* My projection based upon the past two days of voting compared to the 2004 EV curve of votes cast each day in the 2004 DEM primary estimates that ~97,000 votes could be cast early in Travis County.

Damn that looks good!

Sonia