Large crowds are expected at many polling sites as El Pasoans begin the last week of early voting for the Nov. 5 election.
“The first week of early voting was busy but we’re expecting next week to be even busier, especially the last two days. We’ve seen our regular high turnout sites with long lines and expect that to continue next week,” County Elections Administrator Lisa Wise said on Friday.
More than 16,700 El Pasoans cast in-person and mail ballots over the weekend. It was the largest weekend early voting turnout ever in El Paso.
Early voting ends Friday, Nov. 1, and Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 5.
Wise said voters can take a number of steps to make voting go by more quickly.
Review your ballot ahead of time. You can create a personalized sample ballot on the county elections website before going to the polls. You can print it out, mark it and take it to the polls to help you fill out your ballot more quickly. (You can review the El Paso Matters voter guide to help you make your choices on local races as you fill out your sample ballot.)Don’t wear apparel with political statements to the polls, including hats and t-shirts. It’s not allowed within 100 feet of a polling site, and you’ll be asked to remove it, slowing things down for you and others.Lines often are long at the busiest of the 33 early voting sites, while nearby polling places might have significantly shorter wait times. Go to the county elections website to check wait times. Curbside voting is available for people who can’t enter a polling site without assistance or likelihood of injury. Go to the parking spot designated for curbside voting, and call or text for assistance at the number on the sign.People with mobility challenges can be given priority to avoid standing in line. Notify any election worker if you’d like priority.
Hours vary at early voting stations.
Nine of the early voting sites will be open to 9 p.m. each night through Friday. Those sites are Arlington Park Shelter, Bassett Place, El Paso County Eastside Annex, El Paso County Northwest Annex, Fabens Community Center, Marty Robbins Recreation Center, Officer David Ortiz Recreation Center, and Oz Glaze Senior Center.
As of Sunday, more than 103,000 people had cast early votes in El Paso County, either in person or by mail.
It’s difficult to compare turnout this year to the last presidential election in 2020, because an extra week of early voting was added that year because of the pandemic and mail-in voting was heavily stressed as more than 10 El Pasoans a day were dying of COVID-19.
The number of mail-in ballots so far this year – about 8,200 through Sunday – is about a third of the number heading into the last week of early voting in 2020.
But with five days left in early voting in 2020, almost 169,000 people had cast early votes in person or by mail. About 53,000 El Paso County residents cast ballots in the last five days of early voting that year.
In the last pre-pandemic presidential election in 2016, about 91,000 El Paso County residents had cast ballots before the last five days of early voting, and almost 64,000 voted in those last five days.
In El Paso voting so far this year, about 53% of the votes cast as of Sunday came from women, according to an El Paso Matters analysis of county voting data. That’s typical for an El Paso election.
About 72% of voters are aged 45 or older, also typical at this point in early voting. The median age of voters – meaning half are older and half are younger – is 58.5 through Sunday.
Just under 11,000 early voters are under age 30. Heading into the last five days of early voting in 2020, that number was almost twice as high, but there was an extra week of early voting that year. About 53% of voters under 30 so far are women.
Less than 9% of registered voters under age 30 have cast a ballot so far.
As is typical in El Paso and elsewhere, the percentage of registered voters casting ballots increases as people get older. More than a third of El Pasoans older than 65 have already cast ballots as of Sunday.
The post How you can make the last week of early voting less stressful appeared first on El Paso Matters.
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