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First day of early voting sets record in Dallas County, elsewhere in Texas

Turnout soared after Gov. Greg Abbott moved up the start of early voting six days this year. It began Tuesday instead of Oct. 19.

Updated at 8:50 p.m. with additional interviews and information.

Jalen Williams hugged his mom after he voted. Hannah Brown did a happy dance. Miles Griffin posted a selfie on social media encouraging others to head to the polls.

“Dallas, it’s voting time!” the caption read, referencing the catchphrase of the superhero group known as The Power Rangers that adorned his sweatshirt.

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The three Dallasites joined hundreds of thousands of Texans across the state in casting their ballots in the presidential election Tuesday, the first day of early voting for the Nov. 3 election.

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Early voting continues through Oct. 30. Some counties have special hours for polling locations. Voters should check with their county elections departments for more information on when and where they can vote.

Turnout for the matchup between President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden was heavy statewide, breaking records in some areas, including Dallas County. Voters began queuing up before dawn and stood in line — many for more than two hours — to record their preference in what is expected to be a generational election defined by the coronavirus pandemic, economic turmoil and racial reckoning.

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Kevin Whitaker, who arrived at the Oak Lawn library in Dallas to vote at 7 a.m. framed the election in existential terms.

“They say ‘vote like your life depends on it.’ Because of who I am, my life probably doesn’t. But for my friends and loved ones, it does.” Whitaker said. “There are 210,000 people dead, unemployment is high, my wife hasn’t had a job in six months.”

Despite the long lines, voters in North Texas reported a mostly smooth process.

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Dallas County Republican chairman Rodney Anderson reported “some bumps,” including a broken tabulator machine in Grand Prairie. Voters there left their completed ballots unrecorded with the promise that they would be counted later. And at the Samuell-Grand Recreation Center in East Dallas, election equipment was reported to be working slow.

A reminder of what makes this election so extraordinary: One voting location in Tarrant County, the Euless Senior Center, was unable to open on time Tuesday because an election worker tested positive for the coronavirus. The voting center did open after 10 a.m.

Election officials across the state have stepped up to ensure safe voting environments. Millions have been spent in Dallas County alone for additional voting machines and sanitizing equipment.

Other parts of the state did not fare as well. In Fort Bend County, just outside Houston, officials said the problem wasn’t just long lines but also a technical glitch in which the wrong date had been programmed into voting machines. Polls opened almost two hours late, after the equipment was reprogrammed. County officials assured voters they would investigate what went wrong.

In Harris County, though, long lines appeared to be purely the result of a record turnout. County Judge Lina Hidalgo tweeted that the county matched the all-time one-day early voting record of about 68,000 ballots cast at 2:07 p.m., and zoomed past 100,000 by the end of the day.

There also were reports of possible first-day record turnouts in El Paso and Travis counties, and long lines were reported in Bexar and other counties as well. As of 8 p.m., Tarrant County reported 42,000 votes cast, just shy of its 2016 total.

Record turnout has long been predicted for this year. More than 10 million people have already voted across the country. Early voting started Monday in the unexpected battleground state of Georgia, with a record-smashing turnout statewide.

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As of 9:30 p.m. Tuesday, Dallas County, Texas' second-largest county, reported more than 59,734 votes, eclipsing its previous record of 59,389 votes in 2018. However, a county official said that number could change as data is reconciled.

Since the pandemic began, both major political parties in Texas have filed numerous lawsuits challenging the Texas election code and Gov. Greg Abbott, who has used his emergency powers to mold the election.

Late Monday, the Republican Party of Texas filed another suit in Harris County, seeking to stop the clerk from allowing any registered voter the option of curbside voting. The lawsuit, filed with the 14th Court of Criminal Appeals, asked the court to block the county from continuing its “drive-through” voting option and to limit curbside voting to those who are physically unable to enter the polling location without assistance or the likelihood of harming their health.

In a statement, the party said the drive-through polling locations were “simply a political maneuver” by the Harris County clerk to “undermine electoral integrity.”

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Chris Hollins, the clerk, said the lawsuit was “frivolous” and a “gross misrepresentation” of what his office was offering.

‘It feels liberating’

North Texas voters headed to the polls early for a variety of reasons. Some saw it as their patriotic duty. For others, it just worked for their schedules. And there were those who just wanted to get it over with.

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“I’m about to cry,” said Brown, a first-time voter who cast her ballot at the American Airlines Center, one of Dallas County’s voting super centers. “It feels really liberating, especially knowing that my ancestors didn’t have the right to vote as Black women.”

Normally a venue for basketball and hockey games and concerts, the Victory Park event center is one of more than 20 NBA arenas being offered as official polling locations this election season. The stadium is set up with voting machines spaced 6 feet apart, enough to accommodate 50 people voting at the same time.

Long lines wrapped around the stadium early Tuesday morning, but by 10 a.m. the line was considerably shorter and wait times were down to less than 20 minutes.

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Williams, who also voted for the first time, needed some help from his mother pinning a Mavericks “I Voted” button to his shirt. He said an eventful summer filled with Black Lives Matters protests and the COVID-19 pandemic had moved him to vote.

“At first I was a little nervous, not knowing what to expect,” Williams said. “It feels really good.”

Elsa McDonald and her daughter Kendra Ford reported a seamless experience, despite their two-hour wait at the Oak Lawn library.

Echoing others in line, they worried that the lines would only get longer as Election Day nears.

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“I wasn’t sure it was going to be like this,” McDonald said, referencing the long lines at early voting locations in other states. “But now I know. I can tell people to wait in line, don’t give up. Just hang in there.”

McDonald, who had voted early in previous elections, said Tuesday’s line was the longest she had seen — even longer than in 2008, when voters turned out en masse to elect Barack Obama as president.

“This is just something totally different,” McDonald said.

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‘Butt in line’

Precautions at many early voting sites in North Texas included face masks and social distancing in voting lines. About a dozen cars were waiting for curbside voting at 9:30 a.m. at Disciple Central Community Church in DeSoto

At Plano’s Carpenter Park Recreation Center, a Collin County voting site, the line to vote stretched around the back of the building — deceiving for people arriving in the front parking lot.

When Albert and Linda Salinas — both wearing special masks — arrived to vote, they thought the line had dissipated. They ended up waiting about a half hour to get into the building.

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“I wanted to do like I would in grade school and butt in line, but they wouldn’t go for it,” Albert Salinas said. “It’s just an important election for us. Couldn’t get here fast enough.”

At least two voters in Dallas County struck up a conversation emblematic of the national debate over safety precautions taken this election cycle.

“I’m just wearing a mask because we’re supposed to,” said Chris Meager, who adjusted her blue surgical mask midthought. “I don’t think they really help.”

Clint Josey, 93, said he didn't mind waiting as he sat in his walker at the end of the line....
Clint Josey, 93, said he didn't mind waiting as he sat in his walker at the end of the line. The wait for early voting at that point had lessened to an hour on the first day. People were voting for the Nov. 3rd general election at University Park United Methodist Church in Dallas, Tuesday, October 13, 2020. (Tom Fox/The Dallas Morning News) (Tom Fox / Staff Photographer)
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“I’m the opposite,” said Kathy Moton, standing outside a voting center in Garland. “I think it helps.”

Meager said several people she knows from church had contracted the coronavirus and survived, including one who has chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Moton said she’s still wary of the virus: “I think it is one of the number one major issues for me. And Trump.”

But the reason Meager and Moton chose to vote in person was the same. Neither was completely confident in the efficacy of mail-in voting, and they wanted to be sure they cast their ballots in a polling place.

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“I don’t trust the mail-in voting,” Meager said.

“It’s worth it for me to come in line to know that I’ve done my duty,” Moton said. “I’ve got to make my vote count because I’m not liking what’s going on in politics. I can’t talk about it if I’m not being a part of it.”

‘None of the disruption’

Tuesday’s turnout was a Rorschach test for the local political parties.

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Carol Donovan, Dallas' Democratic leader, said the hundreds of people lined up across the county showed the momentum for her party. And she said the so-far peaceful election was a welcome relief as political observers across the country watch for potential scrums at the ballot box.

“There has been none of the disruption that President Trump has threatened,” she said.

At Irving City Hall, Juan Manuel Cantú was one of the first voters in line. He voted on Tuesday because he wanted his vote to count as soon as possible in order to get Trump out of the White House.

“There’s a lot going on, like the virus and unemployment and everything, and Trump is something we need to get through this time and get into something better,” he said. “It is important because it seems that since the president came in there has been a lot of disorder, one after another, and we want peace, but a change is needed now.”

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Curbside voting during the first day of early voting at Disciple Central Community Church in...
Curbside voting during the first day of early voting at Disciple Central Community Church in DeSoto on Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2020. (Juan Figueroa/ The Dallas Morning News)(Juan Figueroa / Staff photographer)

Anderson, the Republican leader, promised massive turnout for his party — especially to stave off the Democrats on down-ballot races. Democrats in Texas have made capturing the statehouse a strategic aim this fall, an effort that would pay dividends for a decade in legislative redistricting.

Anderson predicted Republicans would flip three state House races in the Dallas-area.

“We’re laser-focused,” he said, adding that if Republicans can rout Democrats in Dallas “there is no path for them to take the Texas House.”

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Mary Sneed, a Republican voter, could help prove Anderson right.

Sneed, who voted at the Lakeside Activity Center, said there wasn’t one issue in particular that brought her to the polls, but as a Republican, she wanted to show up early to cast her ballot in person — and she wasn’t sure if she trusted mail-in voting.

She said she was excited to vote for Samuel Smith, a Republican candidate for the Texas House, who is challenging Democratic incumbent Victoria Neave.

“He was out here and I talked to him. I like him,” Sneed said. “I’m glad that I got the brochure because I wouldn’t have known.”

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James Barragán, Charles Scudder, Imelda García, Jared Weber, and John Gravois contributed to this report.

Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly reported that voting equipment at the Samuell Grand Recreation Center did not work. The equipment was running slowly, and according to a county official, was fixed.