There are 1,398,579 registered voters in Dallas County and nearly 60,000 of them went to the polls on the first day of early voting. The 59,905 who cast their ballots narrowly surpassed 2016’s total of 58,775, a meager jump to a new record. It wasn’t the bombastic turnout you saw in Harris County, which has about double the population of Dallas and just about doubled its 2016 turnout from 67,471 to more than 128,000. But it also didn’t drop like in Bexar County, which fell from 35,427 to 33,111. (Travis and Tarrant stayed pretty similar. Travis went from 35,066 in 2016 to 35,873 yesterday while Tarrant had 43,140 in 2016 and 42,428 yesterday.
That’s a lot of numbers to throw at you. The good news is things moved smoothly here. In Tarrant County, one Euless polling site had to be shut down because a poll worker tested positive for COVID and was with other staffers a few days ago. Samuell Grand Recreation Center had some technical problems early, but sorted those out and got the lines moving. By the afternoon, most polling sites had waits of no more than 15 minutes.
Today, there’s no sign of the three hour-plus waits at polling places like Our Redeemer, on Park Lane. As I’m typing this, at about 10:30 a.m., Balch Springs and Coppell Town Center have the longest waits, of 42 minutes. Oak Lawn Branch Library has about a half hour wait, as does the Oak Cliff Sub Courthouse.
The rest has a whole lot of green: 0 to 5-minute waits are quite easy to find. Check this link when you’re planning to go and look for the green dots. This turnout is especially positive considering Gov. Greg Abbott extended early voting by six days to help keep people apart during the pandemic. Get out there and do your civic duty.
And take a look at some scenes from a record-setting Tuesday in Dallas County.
