Preliminary voting numbers show big growth in Republican voters

El Paso County historically sees low voter turnout rates but presidential election years tend to draw more than usual.

The results so far from Super Tuesday are in line with past primaries: Slightly more than 2012 when about 17 percent of eligible voters actually turned out, slightly less than in 2008 when 30 percent did.

But there was one definite change this year. There was a big increase in the number of Republican voters.

In 2012, just 11,556, or about 2.7 percent of El Paso County registered voters cast Republican ballots in the primary. The vast majority of the 369,957 registered didn’t vote at all. In unofficial results this year, 28,734 or 7.1 percent voted Republican.

With all the interest in this race, some people who don’t usually vote may be going to the polls and some others who usually vote Democrat may be voting on the Republican side since Texas has an open primary. Neither case would surprise County Election Administrator Lisa Wise.

“That has driven a lot of votes,” Wise said. “And I mean the Republican numbers are extremely high this time. And I think it has to do with the different tactics and the different candidates. Whether it’s for someone or against someone, I don’t know, obviously your vote is private.”

One impact that can be seen in this race is with the U.S. Representative District 23 seat, currently held by Republican Will Hurd. In El Paso County, unofficial results show Hurd only won 57 percent of the Republican vote against a lightly funded political novice.

Given that Hurd has not had any major scandals or issues made against him, this could show that some voters that skew conservative but are not involved in the party structure may have decided to vote this time around. Voters ABC-7 talked with said they didn’t really vote to spoil any party’s primary.

We won’t be able to get a clearer picture the exact background of the increased Republican voters for a few more days at least. Once the elections department gets past the basic results reporting, then they can look deeper at voting behavior.