Early voters swarm in Texas; voting numbers on record pace
Turnout up on both sides, but Clinton-Obama race has numbers on record pace
10:51 AM CST on Tuesday, February 26, 2008
By MICHAEL A. LINDENBERGER / The Dallas Morning News
mlindenberger@dallasnews.com
A down-to-the-wire Democratic contest has electrified voters across Texas, who are voting in record numbers in advance of the March 4 primaries.
Eula Mae Faggett, 83, couldn't make it inside the Oak Cliff sub-courthouse, so election clerks Regina Compton (left) and Walter Robinson brought the voting machine to her Monday.
LARA SOLT/DMN
Eula Mae Faggett, 83, couldn't make it inside the Oak Cliff sub-courthouse, so election clerks Regina Compton (left) and Walter Robinson brought the voting machine to her Monday.
Six days into early voting – and with a week left – about 360,000 voters in the state's 15 largest counties have cast early or mail-in ballots in the 2008 Democratic primary, compared with 120,000 in the Republican primary.
"It's the intensity. The energy we're seeing," said Diana Broadus, election judge at one of Dallas County's busiest early-voting locations, in Oak Cliff.
"They are coming in ready to vote. They want to make sure their vote is going to count."
And they're doing so at a record pace.
Elections 2008
Voter Guide: Use your ZIP code to find Texas candidates and compare them side-by-side.
Polling locations: Early voting continues through Feb.29. Find your polling location.
Map: Early voting locations
Trail Blazers blog: Politics with a Texas twist
We recommend: Dallas Morning News Editorial Board recommendations
Meet the presidential contenders
Things you should know about your next president
Select a candidate: See which presidential hopefuls share your views and opinions.
Where the presidential candidates stand
Presidential candidate financial information
Measure of a Nation: A yearlong series of multimedia story packages about the American presidency and the 2008 elections as seen through the prism of the culture, not the candidates.
Federal Election Commission presidential fund-raising data
Elections 2008 coverage
"We have already surpassed the total early-voting numbers for both the 1996 and 2000 elections," said Scott Haywood, spokesman for Texas Secretary of State Phil Wilson. "At this point, it is a record."
Both parties are seeing much higher turnout than four years ago – but it's the numbers in the Democratic primary that are turning heads.
Democratic voters have so far dominated the early voting in Texas' 15 largest counties.
Among those counties, only Montgomery County in Southeast Texas has lured more to vote in the Republican primary.
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's team has said her campaign against Sen. Barack Obama will live or die in the Lone Star State – and Democrats especially have tuned in to the race here.
In Dallas County, for instance, 49,485 people had voted in the Democratic primary by Sunday evening – nearly 10 times as many as at a similar point four years ago. About 14,000 had voted in the Republican primary in Dallas County.
The big early-voting numbers probably foreshadow a big overall turnout for the March 4 primaries.
But election officials caution that even lopsided primary voting doesn't necessarily mean that the party with the biggest numbers will win in November, when it matters most.
"I don't think you can compare the two, or really draw any inferences between the two elections," Mr. Haywood said. "You can't tell just from the early-voting numbers what the results will be in November."
In 2004, more than 150,000 more Texans voted in the Democratic primary than in the Republican primary.
But come fall, those who voted Republican carried the day overwhelmingly as Texans chose President Bush over Democrat John Kerry in a landslide.
Intensity in Oak Cliff
By Monday, the big early-voting numbers had translated into a palpable air of excitement at Dallas County's busiest polling place for the Democratic primary, the sub-courthouse in Oak Cliff on South Beckley Avenue.
The voting line was long, but moving fast, with dozens of voting booths set up for the crowds. Outside, there were 76 campaign signs on the 12th Street side of the building alone.
Ms. Broadus, the election judge, said the turnout in Oak Cliff so far – 3,786 in the Democratic primary alone – is remarkable.
Interest in the Republican race between Sen. John McCain and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee has been more subdued there, she said.
Jerry McDavis, 56, voted Monday for Mr. Obama.
"This is history," Mr. McDavis said. "I believe in the change he is going to make. The Clintons have been there already. Things were OK in the 1990s, but they could have been better."
Stepping out of the booth just minutes before Mr. McDavis, University of North Texas student Jennifer Valdez said she came out early to vote for Mrs. Clinton.
"I knew it was going to be a high-volume election, and maybe the most important election for Texas we've had in a long time," said Ms. Valdez, who also works as a legal assistant. "I am voting for Hillary, based mostly on the debates. I just think she is better on offering solutions and taking strong stands on things."
Democrats extend reach
Democrats have been more active in traditionally Republican-dominated counties as well. Four years ago, Denton and Collin County Republicans outvoted Democrats in early voting. So far this year, the opposite is true.
That doesn't surprise Roderick Hart of the University of Texas at Austin, where he is dean of the College of Communication and a scholar of presidential politics.
Interest in the election on that campus has been extraordinary, he said.
"It is something that is quite different than what has come before," Mr. Hart said Monday.
So far, interest in Mr. McCain and Mr. Huckabee has been minimal, he said, but students are electrified by the Democratic race, and in particular by Mr. Obama.
"There is a reaction against entrenched forces," he said. "The second part is this kind of Obama phenomenon – there is just no question that young people are just truly identifying with him, with his energy and even perhaps with his naiveté, and the freshness of his views. ... The tenor and tone of this campaign are very, very different."
THE LATEST POLL
A poll taken Friday through Sunday shows the Democratic presidential race in Texas too close to call, while John McCain holds a clear lead among Republicans. The latest numbers:
DEMOCRATS
Barack Obama: 50%
Hillary Rodham Clinton: 46%
REPUBLICANS
John McCain: 56%
Mike Huckabee: 31%
SOURCE: CNN/Opinion Research poll, error margin plus or minus 3.5 percentage points
Turnout up on both sides, but Clinton-Obama race has numbers on record pace
10:51 AM CST on Tuesday, February 26, 2008
By MICHAEL A. LINDENBERGER / The Dallas Morning News
mlindenberger@dallasnews.com
A down-to-the-wire Democratic contest has electrified voters across Texas, who are voting in record numbers in advance of the March 4 primaries.
Eula Mae Faggett, 83, couldn't make it inside the Oak Cliff sub-courthouse, so election clerks Regina Compton (left) and Walter Robinson brought the voting machine to her Monday.
LARA SOLT/DMN
Eula Mae Faggett, 83, couldn't make it inside the Oak Cliff sub-courthouse, so election clerks Regina Compton (left) and Walter Robinson brought the voting machine to her Monday.
Six days into early voting – and with a week left – about 360,000 voters in the state's 15 largest counties have cast early or mail-in ballots in the 2008 Democratic primary, compared with 120,000 in the Republican primary.
"It's the intensity. The energy we're seeing," said Diana Broadus, election judge at one of Dallas County's busiest early-voting locations, in Oak Cliff.
"They are coming in ready to vote. They want to make sure their vote is going to count."
And they're doing so at a record pace.
Elections 2008
Voter Guide: Use your ZIP code to find Texas candidates and compare them side-by-side.
Polling locations: Early voting continues through Feb.29. Find your polling location.
Map: Early voting locations
Trail Blazers blog: Politics with a Texas twist
We recommend: Dallas Morning News Editorial Board recommendations
Meet the presidential contenders
Things you should know about your next president
Select a candidate: See which presidential hopefuls share your views and opinions.
Where the presidential candidates stand
Presidential candidate financial information
Measure of a Nation: A yearlong series of multimedia story packages about the American presidency and the 2008 elections as seen through the prism of the culture, not the candidates.
Federal Election Commission presidential fund-raising data
Elections 2008 coverage
"We have already surpassed the total early-voting numbers for both the 1996 and 2000 elections," said Scott Haywood, spokesman for Texas Secretary of State Phil Wilson. "At this point, it is a record."
Both parties are seeing much higher turnout than four years ago – but it's the numbers in the Democratic primary that are turning heads.
Democratic voters have so far dominated the early voting in Texas' 15 largest counties.
Among those counties, only Montgomery County in Southeast Texas has lured more to vote in the Republican primary.
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's team has said her campaign against Sen. Barack Obama will live or die in the Lone Star State – and Democrats especially have tuned in to the race here.
In Dallas County, for instance, 49,485 people had voted in the Democratic primary by Sunday evening – nearly 10 times as many as at a similar point four years ago. About 14,000 had voted in the Republican primary in Dallas County.
The big early-voting numbers probably foreshadow a big overall turnout for the March 4 primaries.
But election officials caution that even lopsided primary voting doesn't necessarily mean that the party with the biggest numbers will win in November, when it matters most.
"I don't think you can compare the two, or really draw any inferences between the two elections," Mr. Haywood said. "You can't tell just from the early-voting numbers what the results will be in November."
In 2004, more than 150,000 more Texans voted in the Democratic primary than in the Republican primary.
But come fall, those who voted Republican carried the day overwhelmingly as Texans chose President Bush over Democrat John Kerry in a landslide.
Intensity in Oak Cliff
By Monday, the big early-voting numbers had translated into a palpable air of excitement at Dallas County's busiest polling place for the Democratic primary, the sub-courthouse in Oak Cliff on South Beckley Avenue.
The voting line was long, but moving fast, with dozens of voting booths set up for the crowds. Outside, there were 76 campaign signs on the 12th Street side of the building alone.
Ms. Broadus, the election judge, said the turnout in Oak Cliff so far – 3,786 in the Democratic primary alone – is remarkable.
Interest in the Republican race between Sen. John McCain and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee has been more subdued there, she said.
Jerry McDavis, 56, voted Monday for Mr. Obama.
"This is history," Mr. McDavis said. "I believe in the change he is going to make. The Clintons have been there already. Things were OK in the 1990s, but they could have been better."
Stepping out of the booth just minutes before Mr. McDavis, University of North Texas student Jennifer Valdez said she came out early to vote for Mrs. Clinton.
"I knew it was going to be a high-volume election, and maybe the most important election for Texas we've had in a long time," said Ms. Valdez, who also works as a legal assistant. "I am voting for Hillary, based mostly on the debates. I just think she is better on offering solutions and taking strong stands on things."
Democrats extend reach
Democrats have been more active in traditionally Republican-dominated counties as well. Four years ago, Denton and Collin County Republicans outvoted Democrats in early voting. So far this year, the opposite is true.
That doesn't surprise Roderick Hart of the University of Texas at Austin, where he is dean of the College of Communication and a scholar of presidential politics.
Interest in the election on that campus has been extraordinary, he said.
"It is something that is quite different than what has come before," Mr. Hart said Monday.
So far, interest in Mr. McCain and Mr. Huckabee has been minimal, he said, but students are electrified by the Democratic race, and in particular by Mr. Obama.
"There is a reaction against entrenched forces," he said. "The second part is this kind of Obama phenomenon – there is just no question that young people are just truly identifying with him, with his energy and even perhaps with his naiveté, and the freshness of his views. ... The tenor and tone of this campaign are very, very different."
THE LATEST POLL
A poll taken Friday through Sunday shows the Democratic presidential race in Texas too close to call, while John McCain holds a clear lead among Republicans. The latest numbers:
DEMOCRATS
Barack Obama: 50%
Hillary Rodham Clinton: 46%
REPUBLICANS
John McCain: 56%
Mike Huckabee: 31%
SOURCE: CNN/Opinion Research poll, error margin plus or minus 3.5 percentage points
