Updated at 6:10 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 20, 2020, with the latest statewide data.

AUSTIN — More voters in Dallas-Fort Worth voted in person on the first day of early voting this primary than during the 2016 primaries, according to data from counties.

The number of Democratic voters who voted on Tuesday, the first day polls opened, more than doubled in Dallas, Denton and Collin counties and surged in Tarrant county compared to the number of first-day early voters in 2016.

But those numbers remained lower than from the first day of early voting for the 2008 primaries when the presidential candidate race between then-Illinois Sen. Barack Obama and then-New York Sen. Hillary Clinton led to a historic surge in Democratic voters.

In Dallas County, first-day voters for the Republican primary also nearly doubled from the 2016 primaries. But, in Denton, Collin and Tarrant counties, the turnout for this year’s first voting day in the GOP primary was slightly lower than for the first day of the 2016 early voting period.

Available early voting data from Texas Secretary of State Ruth Hughs’ website on Thursday morning also showed a statewide increase in 2020 turnout from the 2016 primaries.

With totals from most counties, except 20 smaller ones, 59,605 Texans were reported to have voted in-person for the Democratic primaries on Tuesday

“We’re very happy with early voting turnout on day one,” said Abhi Rahman, a spokesman for the Texas Democratic Party. “Day one turnout isn’t necessarily the highest, but it tends to get higher each day.”

On Wednesday, the second day of early voting this year, 48,355 Texans took to the polls for the Democratic primary, according to the secretary of state’s website.

In the 2020 Republican primary, 82,369 Texans were reported to have gone to the polls on Tuesday and 75,642 voted in person on Wednesday. Data from smaller counties were also missing from the Republican primary on Thursday evening.

The Republican Party of Texas did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Overall, 55,931 Texans from the state’s 15 largest counties were recorded to have voted on the first day of early voting in the 2016 Republican and Democratic primaries.

More than 16,211,198 Texans have registered to vote in the March primaries, an increase of 1,972,762 from the Texans registered to vote during the 2016 primaries, according to the secretary of state’s latest count this month.