Scurry County reported a first-day total of 657 ballots cast as early voting began Monday for the Nov. 8 general election.
Scurry County Clerk Melody Appleton said it is, to her knowledge, the highest first-day turnout in the county’s history.
She said the number of votes reported on Monday is more than half of what the county reports on average for an entire early voting period.
Other parts of Texas reported record-breaking turnouts for the first day of voting. Harris County reported more than 60,000 first-day voters and Tarrant and Dallas counties each reported close to 43,000 voters.
Appleton said there were no issues with the new voter identification laws or with the equipment.
“Everything went smoothly,” Appleton said. “Everyone was more than happy to show ID. It was an awesome turnout.”
In an effort to battle voter apathy and to encourage people to do their civic duty, local resident C.D. Gray launched the Your Vote Counts campaign, challenging all other counties in Texas to see which county would have the highest percentage of registered voters cast their votes.
On Monday, Gray and a group of other Scurry County residents served hot dogs and water to early voters. Gray said the turnout was great and that he doesn’t remember Scurry County ever having that many people vote on the first day of early voting.
“I don’t think we’ve ever had 200 votes on the first day of early voting,” Gray said. “We had over 600 yesterday. I appreciated the overwhelming turnout. And you’ve still got a chance to vote if you didn’t yesterday.”
The first-day number of 657 voters represents approximately 7 percent of all registered voters in Scurry County. Appleton said that while the turnout is encouraging, she hopes people continue to show that fervor between now and the end of the election.
“We would like to break a record for votes in the entire early voting period and for the whole election,” Appleton said. “We want to keep that momentum going and would just like to have that type of turnout the rest of the time.”
Twelve votes were cast in the Hermleigh ISD board of trustees election Monday. Incumbents Roy Gill, Larry Don Nachlinger and Joe Taylor are joined on the ballot by David L. Digby, Miranda Hancock, John Harty, Michael D. Hildebrand, Jerry L. Smith and Justin White.
Early voting will continue through Nov. 4.
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