The gist
Early voting for the Nov. 7 election started Oct. 23. Brazoria County in the first four days of early voting, which will go on for about two weeks prior to Election Day, saw more than 900 people vote each day from Oct. 24-26, according to election data posted by the county.
In 2021, early voting began Oct. 18, but none of the first four days eclipsed more than 400 votes, according to election data. Totals did begin to pick up toward the end of the voting period, with Oct. 28-29 seeing more than 1,000 people total.
Total early voting in 2021 reached a little less than 7,000, according to the data. Based on the average number of votes each day in 2023, not including mail-in votes prior to Oct. 23, Brazoria County is on pace for more than 9,700 votes for this early voting cycle.
While 2023 is up from the previous similar election, neither are seeing as many votes as the 2022 November midterm elections, which routinely had north of 6,000 people voting each day, according to county election data.
What else?
The lone local race on the ballot for Brazoria County concerns Pearland ISD and a voter-approval tax rate election, which, if approved, would increase the tax rate by $0.09 of what it would have been otherwise. It would also give PISD an additional $11.2 million in revenue to combat a $12.7 million shortfall in its fiscal year 2023-24 budget.
Most of what’s on the ballot for Brazoria County voters consists of several state constitutional amendments, according to the county’s website.
There are 14 state propositions on this year’s ballot, many of which are for specific counties.
One other item, Proposition 4, is to raise the homestead exemption in the state from $40,000 to $100,000, which would mean less taxable value on a property, and therefore lower overall tax bills.
Susan Cunningham with Brazoria County said, while only a guess, that could be the reason why voter turnout is higher than previous similar elections.
Some others that are statewide include:
- A constitutional amendment to increase the mandatory retirement age for state justices and judges
- Constitutional amendments creating a number of funds, such as park funding, broadband funding, energy funding and water funding for various projects
- Allowing the 88th state Legislature to make a cost-of-living adjustment to the Teacher Retirement System of Texas
