A massive Democratic turnout shattered previous early voting records in Texas, according to the Texas Secretary of State. Early voting ended Friday.
As of Thursday night 242,197 Republican voters had voted in person or voted by mail and 717,469 Democratic voters had completed early voting in the 15 largest counties according to Secretary of State of Texas.
The massive Democratic turnout has Republicans feeling blue.
The vast majority of those ballots were cast in the Democratic primary, a turnout that gave Republican officials pause in this traditionally "red" state.
The early voting numbers far exceed previous records.
The numbers far outpace the early turnout in primaries in recent years. In 2000, about 315,000 voters cast early primary ballots in the 15 largest counties. Less than 300,000 cast early ballots in the 2002 and 2004 primaries.
In Tarrant County, approximately 2,100 votes were being cast per hour on Friday, according to Tarrant County Elections Administrator Steve Raborn. In contrast, only 3,300 people voted in the county on the entire last day of early voting in 2004.
"We have never seen this kind of early voting turnout in a Primary Election," Raborn said.
Republican party leaders are stunned by the huge Democratic advantage in early voting - over 70% Democratic. Hillary Clinton also appears to be concerned. The largest 15 counties are Obama's strength.
Hillary Clinton's team is apparently trying to delay the release of the results of the Texas caucuses. They have complained that the caucus is unfair to Hillary.
State Rep. Jim Dunnam, D-Waco, leader of the Democrats in the state House of Representatives, accused the Clinton campaign of trying to "stoke fears or promote cyncism" by raising questions about a process that has been a feature of the presidential nomination process in Texas for decades.
"If you’re losing at half time, you don’t try to unplug the scoreboard,’’ Dunnam said.
The law requires the caucus results to be reported within three days, but the intense interest in the results prompted the Texas Democratic Party to invest $60,000 in a voluntary reporting system so that the media and public would have an idea about how the caucus tallies were breaking.
Obama officials see no problem with it. But Mauro, the Texas Clinton adviser, said the system would produce
"flimsy, half-baked results.’’
Still, Mauro said there were no plans to challenge the legality of the voluntary reporting system.
If she is given 3 full days Hillary will have time to prepare her concession speech.