Expert says Texans could see an Election Day surge at the polls

BRYAN, Texas (KBTX) - Early voting numbers suggest this year’s turnout won’t measure up to the 2018 election, but a voting behavior expert says not to count voters out just yet.

Paul Kellstedt is a professor at Texas A&M’s Bush School of Government and Public Service who specializes in areas including voting behavior, public opinion, campaigns and elections.

On this year’s turnout so far he says “it doesn’t seem like there’s quite as many nail biter races right now and and that might have been a part of what happened.”

Kellstedt calls both parties “united in their turnout by being angry about things.” For Republicans these things include the economy, immigration and crime, while Democrats are concerned about abortion policy, the economy and health care. Kellstedt says its too early to see if both parties are showing up in full force though.

“The patterns of early voting have changed so much, and we haven’t had early voting for decades and decades and decades, so we’re still learning about how early voting is adopted by people in different parties,” he explained.

He says that historically Democrats have been “slightly higher” adopters of early voting, especially in Texas. He says that this is not true everywhere though.

Texans could see a surge on Election Day “especially if the patterns of Republicans being more likely to vote on Election Day continues,” says Kellstedt. “Republicans would, in most of these circumstances, since they’re the out party in the White House, they would be expected to do well in in an election like this, though, to be fair, there’s lots of uncertainty.”

Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 8. For more information on polling locations, what’s on the ballot and sample ballots, visit KBTX’s elections page.

Watch the full interview in the player above.

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