Hays County passes 2016 voting totals

Hays County residents have turned out in historic fashion this year with numbers surpassing totals in the last presidential election.

There have been 74,808 county residents who have voted either in-person or by mail, according to the Texas Secretary of State’s offce as of Sunday. With 152,840 registered voters, 48.95% of registered voters in Hays County have voted already with four days left of early voting. In 2016, Hays County saw 72,164 county residents cast their vote in the general election, according to the secretary of state.

Hays County’s turnout falls in line with high early-voter turnout across the state. Over 7 million Texans have voted early this year — 7,357,840 or 43.4% of registered voters.

Early voting turnouts have also been high across the nation, “a total of 58.6 million ballots cast so far, more than the 58 million that The Associated Press logged as being cast through the mail or at in-person early voting sites in 2016,” ac cording to the AP.

With election day only a week away, Hays County’s election total is among the highest in the nation, according to Dave Wasserman, U.S. House editor for Cook Political Report. Wasserman stated in a social media post Sunday that Hays County “became the first county in America — in my knowledge — to surpass its total 2016 turnout.” Williamson County was one of the next to pass the same threshold. Wasserman also noted that this was likely due to population growth as well as interest in the election.

Friday marks the final day to cast an early vote. There are 12 early voting locations, including four in San Marcos.