TribBlog: Climbing Steadily

Voters in Texas’ 15 largest counties cast more than twice as many ballots during the first three days of early voting for the March Primary as they did during the same span in 2006.

The Texas Secretary of State keeps a running tally of ballots in the GOP and Democratic contests. As of Thursday, 120,669 people had voted, compared to 56,737 in 2006. The current totals represent about 1.5 percent of all registered voters, whereas the three-day total in 2006 accounted for about .75 percent.

So far, voters have shown more interest in the Republican Primary, with 70,895 ballots cast in that race, or about 59 percent of all ballots cast. The last time around, they accounted for about 46 percent of the vote during the same time frame.

The trend has been consistent through the week. In 2006, 40,492 people voted in the first two days of early voting — about one half of 1 percent of the registered voters in Texas. In the first two days of early voting this time around, it was more than double that with 87,704 people casting ballots. That’s about 1.1 percent of the registered voters.