Early voting in Texas nears 2016 total turnout. Will the state flip for Democrats?
Early voting in Texas is poised to surpass total turnout in the 2016 election with two days remaining.
About 8,525,000 Texans had voted by Wednesday, which is 95% of the total turnout including Election Day four years ago. Texas leads the U.S. by this metric.
Texas also led the country in total early votes. In California, about 8,479,000 voters had cast ballots, according to United States Elections Project. Florida was third with nearly 7,386,000.
Unlike other states, Texas doesn’t track the political party of voters casting early ballots, leaving it more difficult to predict whether President Donald Trump or former Vice President Joe Biden are benefiting by the high turnout.
The presidential race in Texas is now labeled a toss-up by The Cook Political Report. And polling has shown a neck-and-neck race between Biden and Trump.
Trump had a 5-point lead in a poll from the University of Texas/Texas Tribune on Oct. 9. They tied in a Quinnipiac University poll last week. Biden led by 2 points in a Dallas Morning News/University of Texas at Tyler poll released over the weekend. On Monday, Trump was ahead 4 points in a New York Times/Siena College poll.
Democrats see an opportunity. Vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris is visiting the state on Friday, the final day of early voting in Texas. Her stops will include Fort Worth, Houston and McAllen.
The state has been a stronghold for Republicans for years; the last time Texans went for a Democratic presidential candidate (Jimmy Carter) was in 1976.
Her mail-in ballot didn’t arrive from Tarrant County, so she drove 20 hours to vote
