Day 2 of early voting shows steady rise in turnout

Tuesday's strong early-voting turnout for next week's primary runoffs has again surprised Bexar County election officials.

Like Monday's first day of early balloting, the county's 29 polls saw a steady stream of voters Tuesday for races including an open U.S. Senate seat and contests for U.S. House, Texas Legislature and county offices.

Delayed two months by redistricting litigation, the runoff was expected to have a low turnout. But Elections Administrator Jacque Callanen said the interest so far has been “truly amazing, and we are thrilled.”

Early voting ends Friday, and election day for the runoffs will be July 31.

Across the county Monday, residents voted at a rate of 540 people per hour, Callanen said, but Tuesday afternoon the rate was 718 an hour.

Callanen expects the tally to drop today before increasing the past two days.

Monday's early-voting turnout included 4,705 Republicans and 1,787 Democrats, for a total of 6,492.

Turnout was low in the May 29 primaries, with about one in nine voters heading to the polls.

More than half of them, about 54,400, cast votes during the early-voting period, which was held over 10 days, as opposed to the five days of early voting for the runoff.