By Maggie Lineback

There’s early voting in Texas, so for eleven days ending the Friday before March 4th, voters can avoid the mad dash on Tuesday and head to the polls at their leisure. But a funny thing happened on the way to the precinct. There’s been something of a mad dash EVERY day of early voting. Election workers knew they were in for it from day one. We were in Harris County (Houston) and the head of the elections told us the first day numbers were higher than the ones from the last day of early voting in the previous primary. That’s important, since the last day of early voting is usually when they see the big numbers—because procrastinators like me finally figure they’d better go down and vote. But in this election, the numbers have started and remained solid each and every day.

When I went down to vote (a full day before the deadline, thank-you very much) a poll worker toll me they’d had about eight or nine hundred people come through each day. And that’s just one precinct. But it’s not an anomaly. Across Texas, the same thing is happening. The Texas Secretary of State says in the fifteen counties with the most people, the vote’s been building, from about 80,000 to 140,000 voters casting their ballots each day.

The head of elections in Dallas County, Bruce Sherbet, told me he’s just thankful there is early voting. He says it gives his department a sense of what to expect Tuesday. He adds, “Can you imagine this kind of event if there was only an election day only?”

There’s no such heads up for the people organizing Tuesday night’s precinct conventions (caucuses.) In Texas, Democrats split their delegates between the primary and the caucuses. You go to vote at the polls and then come back to your polling place at 715pm to caucus. Unfortunately for organizers, the decision of where to hold the caucuses was made months ago, before anyone knew Texas would be a big deal. The Chair of the Party in Harris County told me usually only a few of the party faithful- at most ten or twenty- show for the precinct conventions. Now, in every speech, you’ll hear both campaigns urge their voters to caucus. So how many will follow through? 50? 500? Who can tell? Organizers are anxious there may not be room for everyone.

What’s driving all this? Experts say it’s the excitement that the Texas primary might actually decide something. I, for one, can’t wait till Tuesday.

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