Travis County Early Voting Ends in a Surge: 49,398 Ballots on the Final Day, 447,689 in All — 47.2 Percent of Registered Voters

Travis County closed early voting the way it opened it — at full tilt. Nearly 49,400 people cast ballots on Friday, October 30, the final day, lifting the 12-day total to 447,689, according to unofficial figures from the Travis County Clerk's Elections Division reported this cycle and read in full. Friday's 49,398 — 47,716 in person, 612 mail ballots received and 1,070 limited ballots — was the second-highest single day of the period, behind only opening day's 49,987, and represented about 5.21 percent of the county's 948,575 registered voters in a single day.

The finish was a climb, not a coast. Thursday drew 37,932, so Friday jumped roughly 11,500 voters, about 30 percent, in one day; the second week rose steadily from 34,298 on Monday through 35,355 on Wednesday before the surge. The busiest Friday sites each drew more than 1,500 voters — the Pflugerville ISD Rock Gym at 1,820, Bee Cave City Hall at 1,785 and the Ben Hur Shrine Center at 1,780 — and the Millennium Youth Entertainment Complex nearly doubled day over day, from 676 Thursday to 1,379 Friday. Across the 12 days, in-person voting made up the vast majority at 427,412, with 16,793 mail ballots received.

The county's share is the story's weight: 447,689 early ballots is 47.20 percent of everyone registered in Travis County, cast before Election Day in a midterm. The figures are unofficial and may change as the county finalizes its counts, the clerk's report notes. Election Day is Tuesday, November 3; voters who have not yet cast a ballot vote then, and the county clerk's Elections Division is the source for Election Day locations and details. Austin bureau pickup credited.