Houston County Early Voting Draws to a Close
By Will Johnson
Messenger Reporter
HOUSTON COUNTY – The 2020 General Election will be held next Tuesday, Nov. 3 and if the early voting numbers are any indication, this year’s voter turnout could easily surpass previous records for the number of ballots cast in an election.
According to Houston County Elections Administrator Cynthia Lum, by Tuesday afternoon, Oct. 27, over 4,600 early voting ballots had been cast with an additional 800 ballots by mail already received. By Thursday, Oct. 29, a total of 5,567 in-person ballots had been cast with 35 more ballots by mail received.
In the 2016 General Election, there were 4,845 ballots cast during the early voting period with an additional 306 absentee ballots received. The final tally showed 7,773 votes were cast in the last presidential election.
Lum said as of the last check on the number of registered voters in Houston County, there were 13,449.
“The election of 2016 was a record turnout for us. For the entire election, we had grand total of 7,773 voters. We had roughly 600 ballots by mail. In this election we mailed out 925 ballots by mail and we have received a little more than 800 back,” she said.
The final totals for early voting, which ended on Friday, Oct. 30, were not available as of press time. Through Thursday, Oct. 29, however, 5,099 ballots had been cast in Crockett while 265 ballots had been cast in Grapeland and 203 ballots had been cast in Lovelady for a total of 5,567 ballots. There had been 4,461 votes cast in the Houston County Hospital District races. There were 421 votes cast in the Crockett ISD District Two Trustee election and 851 votes had been cast in the Latexo ISD bond election.
Combining the 835 ballots by mail with the cumulative 5,567 in-person early votes gives a total of 6,402 votes cast or 47.62 percent of registered voters. Another way of looking at this is before the first vote is cast on Election Day 2020, Houston County is only 1,371 votes shy of the entire amount of votes counted during the 2016 General Election.
The General Election is Tuesday, Nov. 3.
Will Johnson may be contacted via e-mail at [email protected].
