Tarrant County voter turnout surpassed 2008 numbers on the first day of early voting for the Nov. 6 presidential election.
Tarrant County Assistant Elections Administrator Jana Johnson said 30,137 citizens cast their ballots in person on Monday at 38 fulltime voting sites located in various cities in the county.
That is a 4.8 percent increase in turnout compared to the 28,757 voters that Johnson said attended the first day of early voting in the 2008 presidential election. Not counted with the in-person voter numbers, about 1,350 ballots from absentee, overseas and military voters were also received Monday.
Johnson said that though there was a record turnout on the first day, she expects that the turnout will be even higher at the end of the early voting period.
"On the last day [of the 2008 election] we had 50,063. A lot of people wait until the last three days for early voting," Johnson said. "The last week of early voting is always higher than the first week."
Most voting sites are open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. until Saturday, Oct. 27, when early voting hours extend from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., giving people more time to cast their votes. Despite the following curtailed Sunday schedule (from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.), early voting will take place through Nov. 2 from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. at all full time sites.
Temporary sites will be set up at various university campuses, including the TCU campus. Early voters from the 76109 area can go to the first floor of the Brown-Lupton University Union, where the Tarrant County Elections Office will be running the common area as a voting site. The TCU temporary voting site will be open Oct. 29 to Nov. 2 from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Other campus site times may vary depending on location and are listed on the Tarrant County election office’s website, www.tarrantcounty.com/evote.
The Tarrant County election office posts daily reports on early voter turnout both from mail-in and in-person ballots throughout the early voting period on the website as well. For more information, the Texas Secretary of State’s office also posts daily early voting numbers from other major counties on www.sos.state.tx.us.
