Texas early voting already exceeds 2016 total ballots

AUSTIN, Texas — Texans have cast more ballots in the presidential election than they did during all of 2016, an unprecedented surge of early voting in a state that was once the country’s most reliably Republican, but may now be drifting toward battleground status.

More than 9 million ballots have been cast as of Friday in the nation’s second mostpopulous state, exceeding the 8.9 million cast in 2016, according to an Associated Press tally of early votes from data provided by state officials.

Texas is the first state to hit the milestone. This year’s numbers were aided by Democratic activists challenging in court for, and winning, the right to extend early voting by one week amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Texas also offers only limited vote by mail options when compared to the rest of the country, meaning casting inperson, early ballots is the primary way to vote for people who don’t want to line up on election day.

Voters in Texas do not register by party affiliation, so no one can be sure until the ballots are counted whether one party or the other will benefit from the surge in turnout. Still, the fact that the state exceeded its entire vote total for the past presidential cycle with hours still to go in its early voting period that ends Friday, and before millions more people are likely to vote on election day, hints at a potential electoral sea change.

For Democrats, anything different is likely positive. The party hasn’t won a state office in Texas since 1994 — the nation’s longest political losing streak — nor seen one of its presidential nominees carry the state since Jimmy Carter in 1976. The party now believes it has a chance to seize control of the state House and flip as many as six congressional seats and a Senate seat.

President Trump carried Texas against Hillary Clinton in 2016 by a comfortable 9 points, even though that was the smallest margin since Republican Bob Dole beat Democratic President Bill Clinton by 5 points in 1996.

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s campaign has for months insisted that Texas, with its 38 electoral votes, is among the traditionally conservative states it is looking to flip. Biden’s running mate, California Sen. Kamala Harris, was visiting Fort Worth, Houston and the U. S. Mexico border town of McAllen on Friday, using precious campaign time on the state far later than any major national Democrat in decades.

The news may not be all positive for Democrats, however. One area that has not seen voting rise dramatically is the Rio Grande Valley. Its population is about 90% Mexican American. The area is solidly Democratic, and not turning out voters there — especially when the rest of the state is shattering records — could spell trouble for Biden.