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Record turnout for early voting

Voting in Wimberley and throughout Hays County is off to a record pace.

In Wimberley, 4,276 people voted through the first week of early voting. That is more votes cast in Wimberley than the entire mid-term election of 2014. Compared to the 2016 presidential election, when 4,306 were cast in the first week, Wimberley is just off the pace.

Through the first seven days of early voting, 37,453 votes were cast across Hays County. That blows away the final total of votes over the entire mid-term election in 2014 when 20,327 votes were taken and only 9,054 of them had been cast in the first seven days.

In fact, the voting totals through seven days outpaces the last presidential election in 2016 by a wide margin. Through the first seven days of 2016, there were 28,843 votes counted.

Hays County Election Administrator Jennifer Anderson said it is too early to tell if this will result in larger vote totals once the election is finished. At this point, people may have simply decided to vote early instead of wait until later in the process.

“So far, we are ahead of that presidential year,” Hays County Election Administrator Jennifer Anderson said. “I keep trying to warn everybody that it may be the patterns that have changed and everybody just came out early.”

Across the state of Texas, there have been reports of some voting machines flipping the vote on certain races when a person votes straight-ticket. Anderson said she had not received a complaint of that nature in Hays County.

“Everything has gone relatively smooth thus far,” Anderson said.

The biggest issue has been the early voting days at Texas State University. The election schedule only allowed for three days of early voting on campus, but there were reports of hours long waits. After complaints that the student’s right to vote was being curbed, the county held an emergency meeting and decided to open multiple early voting locations for additional days. On top of more time for students, this included an additional location in Dripping Springs where voting machines had failed early in the voting process causing long lines.

The commissioners’ emergency meeting was prompted by the threat of litigation from the Texas Civil Rights Project (TCRP). The Texas Tribune reported that the TCRP made demands on behalf of two Texas State students, MOVE Texas Action Fund and the League of Women Voters of Hays County to reopen the campus early voting location and add an Election Day voting site in order to avoid a lawsuit. MOVE Texas describes itself as “a progressive non-profit dedicated to giving youth a voice in politics.” The League of Women Voters of Hays County is a nonpartisan organization dedicated to voter education.

TCRP had posted on social media late Thursday that organizers from MOVE Texas Action Fund “watched as students struggled to remain in a 1.5-2 hour long line to cast their ballot, resisting the need to step out of line to use the restroom, eat, or go to class.”

TCRP’s demands came after Democratic candidate for the Texas House of Representatives Erin Zwiener posted on social media an excerpt from an email allegedly sent by Wally Kinney, head of the North Hays County GOP, to a group of Republicans urging them to talk to Precinct 2 Commissioner Mark Jones about denying any extended early voting opportunities on campus. The email states in part that extended early voting on campus “favors Democrats and we sure don’t want to do that in this —- what is going to be — a close election as it is.” San Antonio and Austin news media reported that Kinney said the email was not intended for the public or as a means of voter suppression.

Wimberley View

P.O. Box 49
Wimberley, TX 78676
Phone: 512-847-2202
Fax: 512-847-9054