{"id":18026,"date":"2016-11-18T02:13:56","date_gmt":"2016-11-18T02:13:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=18026"},"modified":"2016-11-18T02:13:56","modified_gmt":"2016-11-18T02:13:56","slug":"early-vote-record-produces-a-mixed-result","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=18026","title":{"rendered":"Early vote record produces a mixed result"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n

\"voting\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Let’s crunch some numbers from the presidential election.<\/p>\n

I want to examine briefly the record-setting early-vote totals in one Texas county — the one where I live — and try to determine if it meant a greater overall turnout.<\/p>\n

Randall County voted 80 percent in favor of the Republican nominee, Donald J. Trump. That’s the least surprising result, given the county’s strong GOP tradition. You can’t find a Democratic candidate running for anything in this county. Indeed, the loneliest job in America — next, perhaps, to the Maytag repairman — might be Randall County’s Democratic chair.<\/p>\n

The county registered more than 43,000 early votes prior to the Nov. 8 election. In 2012, a total of about 49,600 voters cast ballots in the race between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney; captured the Randall County vote by an even greater percentage than Trump did.<\/p>\n

This year, the unofficial vote\u00a0total for Randall County sits at 54,185. That’s an increase of about 5,000 votes from four years ago.<\/p>\n

The county had about 85,000 registered voters this year, which puts the percentage turnout at about 63 percent.<\/p>\n

To that I would say, “Not bad at all.” Of course, the number goes down when you factor in the total number of eligible<\/em> voters, which includes those who aren’t registered to vote.<\/p>\n

What does all this mean?<\/p>\n

http:\/\/uselectionatlas.org\/2016.php<\/a><\/p>\n

I guess it means that the record number of early voters did translate into a ginned-up interest in this election — much to my own surprise. I had thought the election would produce a dismally low turnout, even in this GOP-friendly region.<\/p>\n

Still, the percentage of turnout across the state remains far short of anything to boast about. The national turnout appears headed for a 20-year low.<\/p>\n

I am delighted that Texas makes it so easy for residents to vote early. I remain dedicated, though, to the idea of waiting until Election Day to cast my ballot.<\/p>\n

For those who did vote early — and to those who perhaps voted for the first time — congratulations and well done.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n\n

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Let’s crunch some numbers from the presidential election. I want to examine briefly the record-setting early-vote totals in one Texas county — the one where I live — and try to determine if it meant a greater overall turnout. Randall County voted 80 percent in favor of the Republican nominee, Donald J. Trump. That’s the … Continue reading Early vote record produces a mixed result<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,14],"tags":[1941,3823,5137],"class_list":["post-18026","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","category-political-news","tag-gop","tag-randall-county","tag-voter-turnout"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18026","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18026"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18026\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18028,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18026\/revisions\/18028"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}