Brazoria County election turnout slightly lower than previous gubernatorial race in 2018

Overall, fewer voters turned out in Brazoria County for this year’s election compared to 2018, but slightly more people voted on Election Day.

Brazoria County Elections Clerk Susan Cunningham said the last gubernatorial election in 2018 resulted in 53.94% of registered voters in the county turning out to vote, a slightly higher figure than the 2022 election at 46.64% turnout.

“We compare like-and-like elections, gubernatorial to gubernatorial, because the presidential [elections] always have a huge turnout,” she said.

Cunningham said in 2018 that 112,145 people voted in Brazoria County, and so far in 2022, 110,027 people voted. This number is not yet final as the county must still process late mail and provisional ballots, she said.

This election cycle featured about 28,000 new registered voters, according to the county’s election results webpage.

Cunningham said the implementation of new paper-based voting machines caused minor delays for the judges processing votes and that the county had some lines in Pearland and Lake Jackson after polls closed at 7 p.m. She said the last voter was checked in at 8:20 p.m. and that anyone waiting in line after polls closed was able to vote.

“[Election coordinators] had different things to pack up and bring back than before,” Cunningham said. “They used to just leave all the machines; they had to bring the unused paper and the voted paper. There was more to do once the polls closed rather than just lock the machines up and head on down.”

Election results can be viewed on Community Impact’s 2022 local election guide. Results remain unofficial until canvassed.