Early voting ends with more than 1 million Harris County voters casting ballots

Early voting winding down

FOX 26 Reporter Damali Keith has more on voter turnout in Harris County as early voting draws to a close.

HOUSTON - Friday is the last day of early voting. That means if you haven't already voted early, if you don't do so by 7 p.m. you'll have to wait until Election Day on November 5.

In Harris County, more than 1 million people have cast their ballots early.

The county clerk says that number is about the same as the presidential election in 2016 and 2020. Although 2020's numbers may be weird because of the pandemic, on this last day of early voting, some lines are long while others are looking pretty good.

"We're actually standing here at one of our early vote centers, which is Baker Ripley Aldine. So, if you're in this area or nearby, you can come early vote here. There's plenty of parking. Go in. Go vote. Come out. Take a selfie and show us the sticker you earned," smiles Harris County Teneshia Hudspeth.

"This is my first time voting. It's kind of cool being in there with all the people knowing they're doing the same as you, having their voices heard. It was fun. Me and my mom took a picture," 18-year-old Sean Barreto said, but young Sean may be a bit more fired up about voting than his peers.

Here in Texas, an estimated 12% of everyone casting an early ballot is aged 18 to 29, compared to 14% in 2020.

Four years ago, and now, 52% of early voters are women.

If you're going to wait until Election Day, there will be 700 polling places in Harris County.

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"We have a county wide polling place program here in Harris County. We've been doing this since 2019. So early voting and Election Day, you can vote absolutely anywhere," Hudspeth said.

Voting season has mostly been without snags. Although a lawsuit was filed this week claiming thousands in Harris County should've been removed as active voters.

"Who are either dead, and shouldn't be on the voter roll, who are ineligible based on citizenship status and a few other minor categories. But the majority of the 569,000 fall into a category where had the Voter Registrar been taking the national change of address list from the postal service and balancing it against the voter roster, that individual would have been on the suspense list. (What's the issue with having these names still on the voter roll?) It opens up opportunities for voter fraud," says Lawyer Jared Woodfill.

Harris County Attorney Christian Menefee says, "The people who filed this lawsuit are partisans playing political games. Two of them are candidates on the ballot. The third is Steve Hotze, who has made several attempts to override the voice of voters in Harris County. In 2020, he filed a lawsuit to try to throw out more than 127,000 votes. Now, he’s trying to remove names from the voter roll just days before the election. It’s clear that the goal is just to sow doubt in our elections and disenfranchise voters. I’m committed to fighting back against this extremism, and want to continue to encourage eligible voters to have their voices heard."

Again, early voting ends Friday night at 7 p.m.