WEEKEND NEWS LINKS:

Texas Voter Registration and Early Voting Numbers Are Setting Records

Posted byHoumanitarian

(Mike Morris, Houston Chronicle)
Early voting is on a record pace in Harris County and in many other counties in the region and state.

After five days of open polls, in-person and mail ballots have topped 310,000 in the county, a record tally that far outstrips the early turnout from 2008, itself a record year. Through Thursday, the most recent data available, the state’s 15 largest counties reported nearly 1.2 million votes had been cast, a 6.8 percent increase over the same period in 2008.

Political observers say the rising tallies are due largely to greater awareness and use of early voting by the public, and partly to efforts by political campaigns and election officials and voters’ strong feelings about the most expensive presidential race in the nation’s history.

Texas Voter Registrations Set New Record: 13.6 Million
(KUT Public Radio – Austin)

“More than anything else, what we’re seeing is a natural trend,” said Mark Jones, political scientist at Rice University. “More and more people are getting used to it, they’re socialized to do it, whereas when it first started, it seemed somewhat strange voting before the Election Day.”

County Clerk Stan Stanart would like to think some of the local jump in turnout is due to his pleading with residents to cast ballots early, but he acknowledged voters’ desire for “relevance” plays a role. Stanart hopes to avoid confusion on Election Day, when recent redistricting efforts will force a fifth of residents to vote at new polling places. […]

Statewide and locally, it is hard to deny the growing importance of early voting. Compare this year’s 1.2 million early votes through four days, for instance, to the 655,265 cast over the same period in 2004, or the 278,332 that were cast in the first four days of early voting in 2000. A majority of all votes in Harris County in 2008 – 63 percent – were cast early, up from 42 percent in 2004 and just 26 percent in 2000. The last three non-presidential general elections have seen the same trend.
(Read more of this story at Houston Chronicle)

LOCAL AREA HEADLINES:

STATE, NATION & WORLD: