Bastrop County voters broke a record this year for the highest turnout during an early voting period in a primary election, Bastrop County Elections Administrator Kristin Miles said.

The elections office recorded 7,573 total in-person votes during the early voting period, which ended Friday. Around 58%, or 4,371 early votes, were cast in the Republican primary, and about 42% were cast in the Democratic primary, according to Bastrop County election data.

As of Feb. 26, there were 48,914 registered voters in the county.

This year’s early vote total has been the best turnout during a primary in Bastrop County, putting this year’s election on track to top voter turnout in the 2008 primary, when 16,110 people, or 41% of all Bastrop County registered voters, cast a ballot during early voting or election day. There were 38,695 registered voters in the county for the 2008 primary.

Only three Bastrop County races are contested in the Republican primary and no races are contested on the Democratic ticket.

Charles Carver and incumbent Reva Towslee Corbett are competing for the 335th Judicial District judgeship. Incumbent Bastrop County Precinct 4 Commissioner Donna Snowden is being challenged by Paul Mogonye for the seat on the Commissioners Court. And Bastrop County deputy Joey Dzienowski is challenging incumbent Paula Fenske Birran in the race for the Precinct 4 Constable’s office.

Snowden was appointed to the Precinct 4 commissioner seat in January 2019 after her husband, Bubba Snowden, died three days into his four-year term. Birran was appointed Precinct 4 constable by the Commissioners Court last summer after Salvador Abreo tendered his resignation.

Democrats are only challenging Republicans in two county races in the general election in November. Cheryl Reese, former chairwoman of the Bastrop County Democratic Party, will face whoever wins the Republican nomination for the Precinct 4 commissioner seat. Democrat Mike Renck is challenging incumbent Republican Sheriff Maurice Cook for the county’s top cop position.

Statewide, 84,856 more Texans cast early votes in this year’s Republican primary than in the Democratic primary, according to an early voting report released by political research company Ryan Data and Research.

The company’s founder, Derek Ryan, notes that in the counties with the top 30 largest populations, 65,272 people who voted early in this year’s Democratic primary election had previously voted in a Republican primary.

"I would caution people from saying all or most of these people are leaving the Republican Party," Ryan said in his report. "Yes, some are people leaving the Republican Party (I won't name names). I suspect that a significant portion of these people are crossing over party lines, or have crossed over in the past, in order to impact who the party's nominee will end up being."

Ryan said that about 29% of those 65,272 voters had voted in only one Republican Party primary since 2008 — the 2016 primary that ultimately selected Donald Trump as the party’s presidential nominee. Around 42% of these voters cast ballots in the 2008 Democratic primary election that selected Barack Obama as that party’s nominee.