PARKER COUNTY, Texas — After the first five days of early voting, poll workers are still seeing long lines of people waiting to cast their ballots.
Early voting is somewhat new to Sheila Fowler who joined her husband in line Friday afternoon.
"I have always waited until later. But I thought I needed to vote early. To get my vote in when it counts," Fowler said. “I was going to stand in line however long it took."
Crickett Miller serves as the election administrator in Parker County. According to Miller, during peak times voters stood in line for up to an hour. But they've managed to get the wait time down to about 30 minutes when they're fully staffed.
Either way, It's been nonstop for Miller's office and poll workers especially because of their growth since the last presidential election.
“It’s wonderful that all these people are showing up to vote,” said Miller. “We’ve got about 25,000 registered voters increased from 2020. So we're sitting at 127,000 plus registered voters now. And then in 2020, we had 105,000.”
Miller started working in the Parker County Elections office in 2020. She brought years of experience to the job after working in other jurisdictions.
In just four years, Parker County has added thousands of new residents to their voter rolls like many other Texas counties. Residents Joshua Coker And his wife Jade have seen the growth too. They waited 30 minutes in line to cast an early ballot.
"It's good to get it done now because come Election Day, you're going to have people wrapped around the building twice," Coker said.
While in line they noticed the demeanor of other voters. In the past, they said people were more talkative.
"It was very quiet and there were not a lot of chit-chats like in the past, said Jade Coker. “It seems a lot more serious this go around."
During the 2020 presidential election, Parker County early voters totaled about 60,000. So far, in the first 5 days of early voting this year, 30,000 people have already been to the polls.
During an exclusive interview with WFAA, Texas Secretary of State Jane Nelson talked about her responsibility to make sure every vote is counted. Nelson doesn't want voters worried about the integrity of the election either, especially since people are voting early to have their voices heard.
“Early voting numbers are record-breaking," Secretary Nelson said. “For people to worry whether their vote counts is important to me. I want to assure people that their vote counts and we’re going to protect that vote.”
Since Parker County early voting polls will be open all weekend, Miller expects to break even more records this year. Miller even reflected on the time when not everyone was allowed to vote.
"It is our constitutional right and especially as a woman, we didn't always get to vote. So, it is even higher," Miller said.
“You got to get out here and vote," Sheila Fowler said, "Voice your opinion.”