Voters flocked to Fort Bend County polling locations between 10:30 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. on Monday and Tuesday to cast their ballots in early voting. The county saw an average of 700 voters showing up per hour until 3 p.m., then had a sudden rush at 5 p.m. before closing.
Despite having a busy Monday day, wait lines did not exceed 30 minutes, and the county saw 6,769 voters turn up. This total number for the first day of early voting is under where the county has been in prior elections.
On Tuesday at 2 p.m., this decrease continued as the county had 500 fewer voters turn out than at that same time on Monday. “This is fairly standard, your second day is usually slower than your first,” John Oldham, the elections administrator of Fort Bend County said. “We won’t know yet if that indicates less interest in voting or if somebody’s encouraging people to vote on Election Day or even later in the voting period.
According to Oldham the polls ran smoothly on Monday, with the very last voter checking in at 7:02 p.m. Typically, they see the last voter check in around 7:30-7:40 p.m. Oldham was initially concerned by the newer polling workers, who might delay the efficiency of the voting process. However, he did not receive any complaints on Monday or Tuesday of any issues.
Cinco Ranch is one of Fort Bend County’s largest polling locations and drew in 2,883 voters on Monday. This area is more populated compared to some of their smaller sites like City Hall located in Beasley, a more rural region of the county. At this location, only 197 voters arrived on Monday.
The county has noticed a correlation between how consistently or how long they have been using a site for early voting and the number of people that vote there. Certain polling locations may also be preferred for several other reasons.
“We have seen that if it is a relatively new site, people haven’t voted there in the past and may be unfamiliar with it,” Oldham said. “Also, if somebody’s been voting in the same spot for many years, they’ll go back there and they may even tell their family and friends that they can vote there too.”
Voters who are looking to participate in early-voting can arrive at any of Fort Bend County’s 28 early-voting sites. They are open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. every day except Sunday, when only some locations are open from noon. to 6 p.m.
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2022.
