Early voting in the 2020 primaries ends on Friday. So far, Dallas County Democrats have turned out at nearly twice the clip of the county’s Republicans.
Through eight days of early voting, 39,506 residents of the Democratic Party—about 2.94 percent of its registered voters—have voted in the primary, compared to 21,441 in the Republican races, about 1.6 percent.
Those totals compare to a fairly even split at this point in 2016, when 24,755 Democrats and 25,598 Republicans had visited the polls. But Democrats haven’t matched 2008’s Obama-fueled wave. That year, by this point the party had turned out 68,043 voters (6.11 percent) compared to 18,355 on the Republican side (1.65 percent).
In relation to 2016, Democrats in the large counties surrounding Dallas have similarly boosted turnout:
Tarrant County Democratic (2020): 29,012
Tarrant County Democratic (2016): 17,661
Tarrant County Republican (2020): 34,997
Tarrant County Republican (2016): 38,436
Collin County Democratic (2020): 17,887
Collin County Democratic (2016): 7,767
Collin County Republican (2020): 22,866
Collin County Republican (2016): 24,079
Denton County Democratic (2020): 14,794
Denton County Democratic (2016): 6,430
Denton County Republican (2020): 21,420
Denton County Republican (2016): 20,508
Statewide in 2020, 446,287 Democrats (2.75 percent turnout) and 579,565 Republicans (3.58 percent) have voted.
Election day is Tuesday. Get to it!