It’s time for the week that was in Texas politics with Emma Platoff, breaking news and civil courts reporter for The Texas Tribune.
Friday is the last day for early voting, and so far, turnout has shattered records from the 2014 midterms. It’s also likely turnout will be high on Election Day on Tuesday.
Currently, polls are showing that the Senate race between Ted Cruz and Beto O’Rourke is close; candidates are separated by single-digit percentage points, with Cruz polling slightly ahead. Platoff says that it’s hard to predict the final outcome for this race because large groups of new voters might turn out.
“Strategists are looking at these early voting returns and saying, ‘You know, this group looks like a bunch of Democrats, these look like Republicans,’ but these people, we rarely see them outside of a presidential election year. It’s hard to say what these people are doing at the polls,” Platoff says.
During early voting, there have been reports of voting machines flipping voters’ preferences when they vote straight-ticket – meaning they vote exclusively for candidates of one party. Platoff says that the machines use old technology, so she advises voters to check their ballots before submitting them.
Listen to the full interview in the audio player above.
Written by Alexia Puente.
