One of the biggest and most disturbing storylines to emerge on Super Tuesday wasn’t about any top-of-the-ticket race, but rather the shockingly long wait times as some Texas polling locations struggled to keep up with increased turnout.
According to the Associated Press, more than 2 million votes were cast in the Democratic primaries in Texas, an increase of over 45 percent compared to the last presidential election year. Voting estimates in Harris County and Dallas County show that Democratic turnout rose about 45 percent. In smaller counties with large student populations, there were surges in voter registration ahead of the primaries and massive turnout on Super Tuesday. Hays County, home to Texas State University, reported that votes cast for Democrats topped 25,000, up 79 percent over 2016.
Statewide, fewer people voted in the Republican primary than four years ago: Votes cast declined roughly 30 percent compared to 2016, according to preliminary estimates by NPR and the Associated Press. But it’s impossible to tell how many might have crossed party lines to vote in the Democratic contests.
