TRAVIS COUNTY, Texas — On the last day of early voting, eight Travis County polling locationswill be open until 10 p.m. The Travis County voter registrar says more than 50% of voters may have cast a ballot before early voting ends.
At the end of the day Thursday, more than 431,000 Travis County voters had cast a ballot, with hundreds of thousands more expected on Tuesday.
On Friday, the wait to vote at the Ben Hur Shriner’s Temple on West Anderson Lane was just minutes at lunchtime.
“Oh, it was easy. Yeah. The line moved quickly,” said Rip Sutton, who meant to vote Thursday but came Friday instead. “This is a big presidential election year. Lots of people have opinions.,” I said to Sutton. “I’ve never seen anything like this before. There’s a huge turnout,” he replied.
That’s what brought first-time voter Scout Goldsmith to the polls. She is 18 years old. “I have been waiting to vote since I was 10 years old and I watched Hillary Clinton lose and my life has been overshadowed by politics basically ever since,” she said.
In fact, across the country, 41 million members of Gen Z – defined as people between the ages of 16 and 27 right now, are eligible to vote. One survey showed that 82 percent were motivated to vote in this election, making Goldsmith’s vote part of a potentially very powerful group.
“Do you see a lot of enthusiasm with people your age?” I asked her. “I do but I do not know how much of that is just my social circle. I spend time together with a lot of other people who kind of have the same views as me and we’re all excited to vote,” she said.
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In Travis County, they are part of what is projected to be more than 50% of Travis County voters who have cast a ballot before early voting ends at 10 p.m. That’s according to Travis County Voter Registrar Bruce Elfant who Friday morning posted a graph on social media, showing the voter turnout since 2008, the highest in 2016 and 2020.
“Today was the last day. So, I wanted to take advantage of that and it’s important for me, you know, to vote for you know, our future, for my kids’ future,” Oltea Heresu Said on her way out of the parking lot.
City council candidate Mike Siegel was among a handful of candidates greeting people at the Ben Hur location. He says the early voters have their minds made up when they get here. “The folks who are coming in are anxious to get their business done. They already know who they are voting for and why and they don’t really want to talk to us,” he said.
There will be eight voting locations in Travis County that are open until 10 p.m. Go to votetravis.gov to find one close to you.
