There was a slight drop-off at the Travis County polls today, the second day of early voting, but I’ll be surprised if the numbers don’t start rising quickly, especially after tomorrow’s Obama-Clinton debate here in Austin tomorrow. Fifty-eight fewer people showed up today, for a total of 7,340. Throw in 137 mail-in ballots received today, and that makes 2.79% of Travis County’s registered voters.

Travis County Clerk Dana DeBeauvoir confirmed that Tuesday’s 8,069 total votes is easily a record for first-day voting in the county since early voting began in Texas. The previous first-day high was 1,625 in the 2004 primary.

It will surprise no one to know that Democrats are heavily outnumbering Republicans here – 2,674 have voted in the GOP primary, compared to 12,872 on the Democratic side.

This article appears in February 15 • 2008.

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