Turnout

Normally, early voting produces between 30% and 40% of the total election turnout, and when the spectacular early-vote totals began to roll in, it was easy to contemplate total Travis Co. turnout of 85%. That, of course, did not happen; early and absentee voting ended up accounting for 62% of the total turnout. This ratio held more or less true across the county; early voting’s share of total turnout ranged from 57% in the southeast (District 51) to 66% in the northwest (District 48). The variations in overall turnout were, unfortunately, what we’ve come to expect – lowest in the east (districts 46 and 51), highest in the west (districts 47 and 48), and mixed in the central city and north (districts 49 and 50). The highest-turnout box in town, pleasantly enough, was one of the UT-campus precincts, but as a whole the boxes with supersized (over 75%) turnout were overwhelmingly in the west. Turnout in the three Texas House districts carried by John Kerry was substantially lower than in the three districts carried by President Bush.

This article appears in November 12 • 2004.

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