Robert Moore

El Paso Times

Almost 8,000 El Pasoans cast ballots on Saturday, shattering the record for weekend early voting.

By comparison, the one day of Saturday early voting in 2012 drew just under 5,400 voters. In 2008, the highest level of early voting ever reached in El Paso, just over 6,400 people voted on that Saturday.

About 88,000 El Paso County residents cast ballots in the first six days of early voting, with each day drawing a record turnout. El Paso's turnout through Saturday is 74 percent above 2012, and 62 percent above the record year of 2008.

Despite the huge gains, El Paso still lags well behind most other large Texas counties when it comes to percentage of registered voters casting ballots. Through Saturday, just over 20 percent of El Paso's registered voters had cast ballots in the 2016 election, compared to 24 percent in Harris County (Houston), 25 percent in Dallas County and 29 percent in Travis County (Austin). Several suburban counties in those metropolitan areas already have had more than 30 percent of registered voters cast ballots.

Early voting continues through Friday, and El Paso is on a pace to surpass its entire 2012 early voting turnout on Monday. The 2008 early voting level likely will be passed on Tuesday.

Many early voting locations are open from noon to 5 p.m. Sunday. A list of polling sites is available here. In addition to the regular early voting sites, four mobile sites also are open from noon to 5 p.m. Sunday. Those sites are:

Bienvivir Day Room, 2300 McKinley Ave.



Gary del Palacio Recreation Center Multipurpose Room, 3001 Parkwood Street.



La Fe Montana Vista Community Center Auditorium, 14618 Greg Drive.



Saint Giles Nursing and Rehabilitation Center Activities Room, 950 Camino Del Rey.

Robert Moore is editor of the El Paso Times. Contact him at 546-6149; bmoore@elpasotimes.com; @BobMooreNews on Twitter.