Data shows smaller counties in Texas surpass El Paso at the polls

Data obtained by ABC-7 shows that counties in Texas smaller than El Paso County have a higher voter turnout despite a lower number of registered voters.

El Paso is the sixth-largest city in Texas and has the eighth highest total of registered voters in Texas in the 2018 midterm election yet smaller counties like Hidalgo County in the Rio Grande Valley out vote El Paso.

In the 2014 midterm election, El Paso County casted over 82,000 votes which was fewer than 20 percent of the number of registered voters. It was the lowest percentage of in El Paso’s history for a midterm election.

Hidalgo County has almost 319,000 registered voters and almost 83,500 thousand voters turned out to the polls in the 2014 midterm election. In Fort Bend, a county with only a little over 363,000 registered voters and 134,000 voters casted their vote. Williamson County, a suburb of Austin, had 271,000 registered voters and over 104,000 people voted in 2014.

In the 2016 presidential election, 219,000 El Pasoans casted their ballot. Although 30,000 more voters hit the polls compared to 2008, it was still less than half of registered voters.

Despite a low voter turnout, the 2018 midterm election could be different. For the first time, an El Pasoan is on the ballot for a major statewide race and the county has over 450,000 registered voters.

If more than 20 percent of El Paso’s registered voters from 2014 turned out to the polls, it would result in more than 136,000 votes cast.

With election day just around the corner, what does El Paso need to do to have a higher voter turnout?

That’s the question ABC-7’s Saul Saenz has for tonight’s ABC-7 XTRA. Saenz will be joined by ABC-7’s exclusive analyst Robert Moore as well as Dr. Todd Curry, political science professor at UTEP.

Tune in to ABC-7 Xtra at 10:35 p.m.