Polls open for historic presidential race
Meanwhile, state election heads expect more than 9 million Texans to cast a ballot before polls close this evening.
Burnet County election official Karen Peraino said 9,853 people voted early in this year’s general election, up from just 4,277 votes in the March primaries.
“That’s just the number of people who voted in person, “ Peraino said Monday. “For the mail-in ballots, we have an estimate of 1,700, but there are ballots still coming in.”
So far, about 46 percent of Burnet’s 25,000 registered voters have cast a ballot in the election, officials said.
In Llano County, about half of the county’s 14,000 voters have gone to the polls.
“We’ve had 7,345 early voters including the mail-in ballots,” election worker Linda Gibbs said. “That’s the total from the three early-voting locations in Llano, Kingsland and Horseshoe Bay.”
Across the state, election officials say this year’s presidential election could bring the largest voter turnout since 1992’s contest between Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush.
Texas Secretary of State Hope Andrade said Monday she expects 68 percent of the state’s 13.5 million voters to vote in today’s election, an increase of 12 percent from the 2004 presidential contest.
“There is a lot of energy across Texas regarding this election,” Andrade said in a statement. “We have seen it in early voting, and I think it will translate into heavy voter turnout on Election Day.”
Besides the presidential race, Texans are choosing a U.S. senator among Republican incumbent Sen. John Cornyn, Democrat Rick Noriega and Libertarian Yvonne Schick. Also on the ballot are congressional and legislative races and several statewide offices including Railroad Commission and Texas Supreme Court.
Several county races also appear on the ballot, though many of those contests feature candidates running unopposed.
In Burnet County, Republican Sheriff-elect W.T. Smith faces no Democratic challengers following his March primary victory over incumbent Joe Pollock. That race is mirrored in Llano County, where incumbent Sheriff Nathan Garrett was defeated in March by former game warden Bill Blackburn.
Blackburn and Smith, both Republicans, are running unopposed in the general election.
Also appearing on local ballots is state Sen. Troy Fraser, R-Horseshoe Bay, who is running against Libertarian Bill Oliver. Also up for re-election is U.S. Rep. Mike Conaway, R-San Angelo, who is running against Libertarian John R. Strohm.
Peraino said Burnet election staffers spent Monday preparing equipment for the county’s 23 election precincts ahead of today’s expected crush of voters.
“We’re getting all the equipment ready for the presiding election judges to come pick up,” she said. “We’re getting everything finalized and ready to go out the door. We’re also answering a lot of calls from people wanting to know where their election precinct is.”
Check Wednesday’s Daily Tribune for results from Tuesday’s local state and national elections.
Regular election updates will also be posted on the newspaper’s Web site, www.thepicayunetv.com.
chris@thepicayune.com