Austinites love their democracy – as per usual, Travis County had higher voter turnout than the state as a whole, 41% versus 33%.
They are also more sold on the idea of early voting than other Texans: Contrary to the norm in most places, Travis residents casting ballots either early (116,055) outnumbered Election Day voters (111,438). Statewide, it was the reverse: 1.8 million voted early, and 2.4 million more waited until the big day.
In Travis, 186,426 Democrats went to the polls, compared with 41,067 Republicans. Statewide, it was 2.9 million Dems versus 1.4 million Republicans.
Don’t read too much into those state numbers, though. It would be a mistake to interpret them as a shift by Texans to the left. The Dem turnout was driven by the hotly competitive presidential primary; since the GOP nomination was all but sown up for John McCain, it should be presumed that many Republicans didn’t feel motivated to turn out.
Oh yeah: Let’s not forget that Austin’s borders now stretch all the way up into Williamson County now. Wilco recorded 78,521 ballots cast, including 49,490 in the Democratic presidential primary and 28,848 in the Republican one.
This article appears in February 29 • 2008.