After four days of early voting, turnout in the May 12 council elections has staggered into single digits – just.

According to the latest figures from the Travis County Elections Division, a total of 8,010 votes have been cast, representing 1.68% of all registered voters. Out of those, 7,161 were in person (the fancy term for actually making it to the polls) while 849 were postal ballots.

Across that time, the elections division has mailed out 2,026 postal ballots.

Turnout has been fairly consistent across all four days, starting at 2,174 on Monday and declining slowly across the midweek (2,025 Tuesday, 1,918 Wednesday, and 1,893 Thursday.)

Back in 2008, early voting counted for less than half of total turnout: Across the whole nine days, 15,543 residents (3.58%) turned out early, compared to 20,315 (4.67%) in 2008. If current totals hold up, then early voting could rise this time around, but it’s impossible to say at this point whether that means a higher overall turnout, or just more people eager to miss the election day ‘rush.’

Find full details about the election, including early voting locations, here, and read our endorsements here.

This article appears in May 4 • 2012.

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The Chronicle's first Culture Desk editor, Richard has reported on Austin's growing film production and appreciation scene for over a decade. A graduate of the universities of York, Stirling, and UT-Austin, a Rotten Tomatoes certified critic, and eight-time Best of Austin winner, he's currently at work on two books and a play.