Wow. Just...wow. Thanks everyone for coming by and looking. Luckily, I have excellent news to report. The SoS website is still not updated with yesterday’s totals, and I’m into a meeting: as soon as I’m out, I’ll finish up the chart.
Day 1 (h/t txjackalope) of TX early voting broke records. Day 2 broke those records again. And now, I can bring the EV totals from Wed, day 3! H/T to Battleground Texas, Hillary for Texas, ChrisLove and the Houston Kossacks and everyone else who’s made this possible over YEARS of hard work, and in the face of some pretty discouraging comments and support (or lack thereof) from the DNC and even here on the Kos.
The big thing is, THIS IS REAL. The Castros are campaigning, the Clinton campaign is holding rallies and pushing GOTV, even Politico and RCP recognizes TX is a swing state this year. WE CAN DO THIS. TX has been red a long time, but there’s a huge populist streak that runs through the state, and that’s something we can reach out and touch. Of course, it helps Trump is a horrible person. On top of that, these are now VOTERS. If we turn TX blue, and keep up the effort in off-years, we can make voting something you just do. Once Latinos see how their votes mattered, they will go through anything they have to, to build a better life and country for themselves and their communities. We need support long-term, and Clinton’s been pushing just that: a true, 50-state, every year strategy, backed up by Bernie’s every locality matters.
I now bring you...the charts! All this is straight from the Texas Secretary of State’s office...or will, once they’re posted. The numbers I already have are from the counties themselves. As you can see, most counties either don’t post, or find incredibly difficult ways to do so. If you’re a numbers geek, I encourage you to wander around the SoS site — it has voting statistics going back to 1976...coincidentally, the last time TX went blue. I’ll update with all the numbers when I get out of my meeting.
|
2008 |
2012 |
2016 |
Day 3 votes: top 15 counties
Harris (Houston) |
43,782 |
52,051 |
76,098 |
Dallas |
32,985 |
32,556 |
53,819 |
Tarrant (Ft Worth) |
29,050 |
29,786 |
42,332 |
Bexar (San Antonio) |
31,294 |
31,348 |
40,186 |
Travis (Austin) |
24,119 |
16,721 |
36,400 |
Collin (DFW) |
15,563 |
16,673 |
27,928 |
Denton |
11,575 |
12,630 |
19,759 |
el paso |
9,593 |
9,133 |
14,652 |
fort bend (sw houston) |
10,111 |
12,338 |
17,713 |
hidalgo (Rio Grande) |
6,701 |
9,400 |
13,841 |
montgomery (N houston) |
6,882 |
9,905 |
12,212 |
williamson (round rock) |
8,201 |
8,582 |
15,574 |
galveston |
5,927 |
7,011 |
9,286 |
nueces |
5,324 |
4,772 |
5,834 |
cameron (Rio grande) |
3,457 |
4,111 |
6,801 |
total ev today |
244,553 |
257,017 |
392,942 |
cumulative |
735,639 |
780,123 |
1,181,964 |
total (inc mail-in) |
865,106 |
930,129 |
1,394,620 |
And if you prefer, the Texas Tribune has great graphs, showing you the same information. Bottom line: voting has been amazing. As of Tuesday this year, we had almost as many early voters as 2012 reached — a day later. And MORE total votes cast, when you add in mail-in votes. There’s not TONS of information on demographics...El Paso Times reported that 27% of the votes are new voters...and predominantly women, and younger than the average...all of which is good for Team Blue. In bad news, MB had a great article about the election suppression shenanigans that are still happening here. There have been a number of reports of outdated posters requiring photo ID (which Judge Ramos required updated to include the affidavit...shocked it’s not happened), poll workers who are still requiring photo ID and not helping folks with the affidavit, long lines...even people wearing political (Go Trump!) shirts in line to vote, which is against the law. Good news is that it doesn’t seem to be depressing turnout — not with these numbers.
In other news, there's already a conspiracy theory going around that the voting machines are changing votes from Trump to Clinton. It was on Fox this morning — based on a facebook post of someone who, apparently, just had trouble with the machine. This is bunk, but it’s another sign that we’re recognized as a real swing state.
If you haven’t voted yet, and you’re a Texan...go vote! As Kos said, it’s one more in the bank, and one more to push this steamroll of enthusiasm and excitement all the way to the finish! It's not just about turning TX blue — there are a number of congressional seats that can flip, with this sort of engagement. FaithChatham has an excellent diary about a number of them. And then, keep voting! We can’t let up for midterms, since Gov Abbott and Ted Cruz will both be facing re-election battles in 2018. The sooner we can take the state, the easier job we have to un-gerrymander TX for the 2020 census, and KEEP it blue all the way through.