El Paso voting drops 31% from 2020 on 1st day for early ballots
by Robert Moore
October 22, 2024
The first day of early voting for El Paso County’s general election drew 31% fewer voters than the record-setting 2020 race.
El Paso County had 23,678 mail and in-person voters on Monday, down from 34,118 in 2020. Most of the decline was in mail ballots, which spiked to a record high during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
Even with decreased voting, county election officials reported occasional lines of 45 minutes or more as people waited to vote.
The first day of early voting in 2020 was on a Tuesday because of the Columbus Day holiday that year, which left one fewer day of early voting for Texans than in 2024.
Early voting continues through Friday, Nov. 1. Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 5.
Women made up just over 51% of first-day early voters this year, down from 55% at the same time in 2020, according to an El Paso Matters analysis of county voting data. That decline was driven by the sharp drop-off of mail-in voters. Such voters are mostly over 65 years old, and El Paso has far more women voters in that age group because women live longer than men, on average.
Just under half of first-day early voters this year were age 65 or older. That’s down from 53% at the same point in 2020, largely because of fewer mail ballots that are mostly restricted to older voters by Texas law.
First-day voting was down across the age spectrum in El Paso when compared to 2020. The number of voters under 30 was 37% below 2020 levels; the number of voters 30-44 was down 31%; voting by people 45-64 was off 19%; and votes from people 65 and older were off 36% from 2020 first-day totals.
