How Southeast Texas' early voting numbers compare to past elections
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Early voting across Texas wrapped up Friday with more than 8.7 million Texans using the two-week period to cast a ballot, according to unofficial totals from the Texas Secretary of State's Office.
Harris County saw the highest number of early voters across the state, with 1,176,426 in-person early voters.
Around 89,000 more voters took advantage of early voting in 2020 in Harris County.
But voters had an extra week to vote early that year.
Looking at percentages, 43.68 percent of registered voters voted during this year's early voting period. The number was down from the 51.01 percent during 2020's three-week early voting period, but up from the two-week early voting in 2016.
That trend holds true in Fort Bend and Harris counties.
Fort Bend saw a 53.58 percent turnout for early voting, down from 62.43 percent in 2020 but up from 2016's 49.91. The county saw the fourth-highest voter turnout this year among the 10 most populated Texas counties.
Montgomery County had 52.85 percent of its registered voters show up in-person for early voting. Despite a lower percentage compared to 2016, the 239,849 voters were a significant increase over 2020's early voting turnout of 213,872.
Historical early voting in Texas
The Texas Secretary of State's Office says 18.6 million Texans are registered to vote in the 2024 election. The 8,708,659 who voted early in-person this year represent 46.76 percent of the registered voters in the state.
That's just shy of the 8,764,385 who voted early in 2020, when there was an extra week of early voting.
With mail-in ballots, 9,057,873 Texans voted early.
Texas' population of registered voters exploded ahead of the 2020 general election. 52 percent of the nearly 17 million registered voters voted early that November.
Early voting in 2020 doubled that of 2016 when 4.1 million Texans voted early. The Secretary of State's Office lists 9.7 million registered voters in 2016.
Data shows the number of voters using early voting has steadily climbed since 1996 when 12.71 percent of registered voters chose to vote early.
Since then, 18.62 percent of voters in 2000 used early voting, the number jumped to 28.13 percent in 2004 and 39.55 percent in 2008.
There was a slight dip in 2012 when only 36.84 percent of voters used early voting, but that number rose to 42.89 percent in 2016.