Travis County's population—and its voter rolls—have grown over the last four years. Since 2016, the county has added over 126,000 voters.
However, turnout in 2020 has grown compared to 2016 not just in numbers but also in the percentage of voters casting ballots. After one full week of early voting in the last presidential election, 25.6% of county voters had made their choices. That grew to 27.8% of voters in the first week of early voting in the 2018 presidential midterms, and crossed the 30% threshold in 2020.
More than 230,312 of the ballots received by county elections staff from Oct. 13-19 were cast in person, whereas 35,952 were submitted via mail or hand delivery to the Travis County Clerk's office at 5501 Airport Blvd., Austin. Mail-in ballots received in the first week of early voting this year exceed those in 2016, when 16,110 voters utilized by-mail voting in the corresponding time period.
Limited ballots have been included in the in-person voting totals for both 2016 and 2020. While early voting is up from 2016, so is voter registration. 97% of the county's eligible voters are registered this year, versus 90% in 2016.
Early voting will continue through Oct. 30, followed by one more chance to vote on Election Day, Nov. 3. A list of early voting locations can be found here, and Travis County is updating wait times at the locations live at www.votetravis.com
Editor's note: This story was updated to clarify that the total votes from the first seven days of early voting in 2020 were greater than the total votes from the first seven days of early voting in 2016.
