How Central Texas' early voting numbers compare to past elections
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Early voting in Texas wrapped up Friday with nearly 9 million voters opting to use the two-week period to cast a ballot.
Early voting numbers in 2024 dipped in Travis County compared to 2020 when voters were given an extra week to cast their votes.
Around 460,000 people in Travis County used the two-week period that ended Friday to cast their ballots. The number was down from the 486,000 who voted early in 2020.
Still, Travis County saw an increase in voter turnout percentage in 2024 (49.72%) compared to 2016 (49.32%), the last time early voting was limited to two weeks during a presidential election year.
Williamson and Hays County both went the opposite direction having more voters in 2024 compared to 2020.
Both counties added a significant number of registered voters between 2020 and 2024. From a percentage perspective, early voting was still down compared to 2020.
Historical early voting in Texas
The Texas Secretary of State's Office says 18.6 million Texans are registered to vote in the 2024 election. The 8,708,659 who voted early in-person this year represent 46.76 percent of the registered voters in the state.
That's just shy of the 8,764,385 who voted early in 2020, when there was an extra week of early voting.
Texas' population of registered voters exploded ahead of the 2020 general election. 52 percent of the nearly 17 million registered voters voted early that November.
Early voting in 2020 doubled that of 2016 when 4.1 million Texans voted early. The Secretary of State's Office lists 9.7 million registered voters in 2016.
Data shows the number of voters using early voting has steadily climbed since 1996 when 12.71 percent of registered voters chose to vote early.
Since then, 18.62 percent of voters in 2000 used early voting, the number jumped to 28.13 percent in 2004 and 39.55 percent in 2008.
There was a slight dip in 2012 when only 36.84 percent of voters used early voting, but that number rose to 42.89 percent in 2016.