North Texas Counties See Record Voter Turnout With 1 Week Of Early Voting Left
DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - North Texas broke records at the ballot box on Saturday. More early voters and mail-in ballots have already been counted in Dallas, Denton, Collin and Tarrant counties than ever before.
And this comes with almost a week of early voting still to go.
A steady stream of voters at Irving City Hall Saturday added to what has become a record-breaking tally.
"There's some things you just shouldn't put off to tomorrow, and this is one of them," Cat Lara, a Dallas County voter, said.
Dallas, Denton, Collin and Tarrant counties have already passed 2016 totals for early and mail-in votes. Nearly 600,000 ballots have been cast in Dallas County alone.
In Denton and Collin counties, voter turnout is already over 50%.
"You know a lot of people have already voted in early voting. I think, probably you'll see a lot of voters coming out November 3rd," Collin Huckaba, a Dallas County voter, said.
Concern over how many people will turn out on the actual Election Day is what was driving a number of voters to get to the polls on Saturday.
"I wanted to avoid the crowds, if there were any. I just felt that it was better," Joseph Clark, a Dallas County voter, said.
"I do think there's going to be drama, possibly protests, much more people," Cindy Maravilla, a Dallas County voter, said.
Voters did get an extra week of early voting this year but set the records in the same amount of days they've had in past years.
The turnout is also happening statewide, with total votes already around seven million.