First day of Texas early voting for the 2024 election breaks turnout records
Early voting in Texas for the 2024 election got off to a hot start Monday, with more than 840,000 people casting their ballots in person statewide.
Data from the Texas Secretary of State's office shows that 881,078 people voted early on Monday, which comes out to 4.73% of registered voters.
Monday's vote far exceeds the totals from the first day of in-person early voting for the 2020 presidential election when 755,136 Texans voted in person, 4.4% of registered voters.
Overall, the increase in in-person early voting on the first day outpaced the explosive growth of the state's population; The number of registered voters in Texas grew more than 10% between 2020 and 2024.
Early voting in North Texas
Every county in North Texas saw participation increase on the first day of in-person early voting from 2020 to 2024 except for Dallas County, which saw a decline of more than 4,800 votes. The lower turnout might have been tied to an issue with digital poll books that Dallas County experienced on Monday, which caused increased wait times and long lines at some early voting centers.
While Collin County saw the total number of early votes increase, the percentage of the electorate who voted in person on the first day dipped slightly compared to 2020.
Change in Texas voting laws
The 2024 election is the first presidential race with new Texas voting laws in effect.
In 2021, the Republican-led Texas Legislature passed a law known as SB1 in response to false claims that the 2020 election was stolen. SB1 made multiple changes to early voting rules, including the timeframe.
In 2020, the first day of in-person early voting for most counties was Oct. 13, three weeks before Election Day. SB1 standardized early voting statewide. The period runs from the Monday 15 days before Election Day through the following Friday, three days before Election Day. SB1 also put new rules around the hours early voting locations could be open.