WISE COUNTY, Texas — If it seems like there are more early voters out there this election season, your eyes aren’t deceiving you.
In Wise County, they’re breaking early voting turnout records daily.
Elections Administrator Sabra Srader tells us they’ve had lines every morning before the polls even open in Wise County, which she says is a first in the nearly ten years she’s been there.
Srader expects those long lines to not only continue but to get worse towards the end of the early voting period.
“Historically, the first two days and the last two days of early voting are always your busiest. So, we really prepared for the end of next week,” she told us on Inside Texas Politics. “We expect long lines to ramp up the last two days of early voting, Oct. 30 and 31. So, we’re encouraging people to get out there before that and before election day.”
Even the number of registered voters has grown in Wise County since the last presidential election, jumping from nearly 46,000 in 2020 to more than 56,000 this year.
Srader also tells us there have been minimal problems, as voters have been patient for the most part.
The Wise County Messenger reports there was one arrest in Decatur, reportedly after the person caused a disturbance inside an early voting location after refusing to remove some clothing that had political advertising.
“99% of our voters are really, they know the rules and they know the laws. We do have, always, a few voters that don’t want to follow the rules. But we just follow state law and have them removed from the polling location,” Srader said.
The Elections Administrator also tells us there is a great deal of misinformation swirling out there and she’s been in close contact with her county chairs about fighting the issue.
One example of this in Wise County is scattered rumors of “vote flipping,” or when a machine changes a vote.
Srader stresses their machines can’t do that.
And she has this advice for voters, in Wise County and beyond.
“We’re just encouraging voters to look at your screen, look at your electronic screen, make sure your selections are there. When you print out that print vote record before you put it in the scanner to cast your ballot, double-check it. If it is wrong, or you have perhaps not selected who you wanted to on the screen, our system allows us to spoil that ballot and issue a new one. So, the voters need to be patient, just make sure their vote is correct on the screen,” Srader explained.
Wise County, historically, votes Republican at around 85%, and Srader expects that to continue this year.
And Srader thinks 75% of the total votes in Wise County could be cast during early voting this year.
For perspective, during her first year as Elections Administrator in 2015, 30% of the total vote was cast during early voting, with 70% of the ballots cast on election day.
During the last Presidential election in 2020, that shifted to 60% during early voting and 40% on election day.