By Melanie Pace | Broadcast Reporter
Turnout for early voting this year in McLennan County has been more than four times as high as voter turnout in 2014. Already, the voting numbers have been comparable to that of a presidential election, according to McLennan County Early Voting Totals.
Kathy Van Wolfe, McLennan’s elections administrator, said the high turnout began during registration earlier this month.
On Monday, Wolfe said there were lines at all of the early voting sites, and voters were lining up even when the polls were closing for the day.
Around six thousand votes have been sent in by mail, and Wolfe said she hopes by Election Day over half of voters will have already casted their ballots.
“It’s very good to see this kind of turnout, we are very excited by it,” Wolfe said.
She believes the high turnout is owed in part to candidates’ working in communities both locally and statewide.
Wolfe said people who vote during these two weeks help eliminate some of the lines on Election Day.
“I think people choose to vote early because they’ve already made their mind up how they want to vote,” Wolfe said. “Hopefully they don’t have to wait in line on Election Day.”
Early voting will continue until November 2. There are five early voting locations currently in Waco. For those unsure of what voting entails, there are sample ballots available online, as well as an online voting machine demo.
