October 28, 2004
Early voting much heavier in Harris County this week

If you haven't voted early yet in Harris County, prepare for a wait. It's much heavier this week than last.


People are lining up to vote early in record numbers throughout Harris County, reinforcing predictions of a high turnout by the time voting is over on Election Day.

On Tuesday, with three days of early voting left, Harris County surpassed its total early vote for 2000, as the total for this year hit 240,846.

County Clerk Beverly Kaufman said she expects that 400,000 people will vote in person by the end of early voting Friday. Another 50,000 are expected to send mail-in ballots.

She predicts in-person early voting will be about a third of the total vote, as it has been in recent elections.

That would bring the total turnout out to 1.2 million of the record 1.9 million registered voters in Harris County, Kaufman projects, a turnout of more than 60 percent.


If you look at the early voting numbers so far, you'll see that Harris County had between 20,000 and 22,000 people per day in the first Monday-Friday period, and so far this week it's seen 42,000 and 46,000 people show up. The Multipurpose Center on West Gray is especially busy.

All during the week of October 18, early voting at the West Gray Multi-Service Center has been a frustrating mess for people hoping to dash in and quickly take care of their civic duty.

"It's been one of our busiest sites," says David Beirne, spokesman for the Harris County Clerk's Office. The pace of early voting is double that of 2000, he says.

"There were waits of 45 minutes the first two days, and you don't usually see that until the last two days," he says.


More from the Chron story:

At the Metropolitan Multi-Service Center on West Gray, one of the most popular early voting sites in Houston, more than 100 voters an hour cast ballots.

"It's been that way every day since we've started. It hasn't ceased," said Lee Parsley, the supervisor of the polling place. "I don't think I've ever seen lines at 4:30 p.m. That's unprecedented for us at this location."

He estimates that the site has processed as many as 2,000 voters a day.

Depending on the time of day, the wait can be anywhere from 15 minutes to more than an hour. During the lunch hour Wednesday, early voters stood in line for about 45 minutes before they made it to the voting machine.


Pick your place and time carefully, and bring a book for the queue. If you wait until Election Day, you must go to your designated polling location. All such locations for Harris County are here - you can find what precinct you're in here or here. Nationally, you can find that information here or by calling 1-866-OUR-VOTE.

Posted by Charles Kuffner on October 28, 2004 to Election 2004 | TrackBack
Comments

I'm a bit perplexed about the high turnout. The presidential race in Texas is not hotly contested. Also, the other local races and issues don't seem to be very compelling.

Here's a tip, a friend said the early voting at the Fulton Street location isn't nearly as crowded as the West Gray location.

Posted by: Vernon Guy on October 28, 2004 3:02 PM

Tim and I went to the community center on Westcenter (near the West Beltway and Westpark) and waited in line for 40 minutes late Tuesday afternoon. Tim guesses there were about 60 people in line in front of us. A few people came in, saw the line, and left, but most stayed. It looked like they were in the process of getting some more stations set up as we finally got to cast our ballots.

Honestly, I think some of what's making it take so long is the fact that the ballot is so freaking long. If you actually bother to vote for all the unopposed judges and such, it can take a while.

Posted by: Sue on October 28, 2004 4:24 PM

I went over to the courthouse on Pech Road just north of Westview and had a very pleasant experience voting. They had around 25-40 voting machines and the line ahead of me consisted of just 2 people. I have used this courthouse for car registration before and the lines are usually pretty good, even at lunchtime. It's obscure enough to be handy and close enough to the loop to not be too much of a hassle.

Posted by: Jason on October 28, 2004 6:57 PM

I went over to the courthouse on Pech Road just north of Westview and had a very pleasant experience voting. They had around 25-40 voting machines and the line ahead of me consisted of just 2 people. I have used this courthouse for car registration before and the lines are usually pretty good, even at lunchtime. It's obscure enough to be handy and close enough to the loop to not be too much of a hassle.

Posted by: Jason on October 28, 2004 7:01 PM

Congratulations, I see you support censorship. I noticed late last night that some anonymous person had posted a link to an anti Kerry movie and it got promptly removed by this morning. Kudos.

Posted by: Matt on October 29, 2004 9:41 AM

That wasn't a comment, that was comment spam. Go read the blog policies if you don't like it.

Posted by: Charles Kuffner on October 29, 2004 9:46 AM

i need to know the email address for the Harris county clerks office for class

Posted by: Rebecca on September 19, 2005 1:25 PM