With only four more days left of early voting, less than 1 percent of county voters have cast ballots in the state constitutional election, and just more than 1 percent of city voters have participated in the special election to add 10 amendments to the Nacogdoches city charter.
Out of 32,367 registered voters in Nacogdoches County, only 294 have cast ballots early on the 11 amendments to the Texas Constitution, according to Assistant Elections Administrator Karen Butler.
And, out of the 15,682 registered voters in the city, only 178 have voted in the city charter election.
State officials expected a low voter turnout for the election this year since there are no candidates on the ballot. And according to various media reports, other cities and counties across Texas have been experiencing similarly low turnout numbers as Nacogdoches County's figures.
"Generally, you have a lower turnout when amendments are the only issue on the ballot, and sometimes you will have higher turnout than we're having in this election depending on the types of amendments on the ballot," Butler said.
The early vote tally last week for both elections included 50 on Monday, 86 on Tuesday, 88 on Wednesday, 69 on Thursday and 98 on Friday. On Monday, 52 people voted in person, and, so far, 29 people have voted by mail. Butler attributed Monday's low turnout to the rainy weather.
Early voting in person continues through Friday in the Nacogdoches County Courthouse Annex building. The ballot-by-mail deadline is Tuesday.
Tuesday and Wednesday early voting will be from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., and early voting on Thursday and Friday will be from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Voters need to bring either their voter registration card or their driver's license to be able to cast a vote.
A public test of the electronic voting equipment being used in both the city charter amendment and state constitutional elections and the Martinsville ISD school bond election at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 28.
The 11 proposed state constitutional amendments can be found online at the Texas Secretary of State's Web site at www.sos.state.tx.us/. The 10 proposed Nacogdoches city charter amendments can be found online, as well, at the city's Web site at www.ci.nacogdoches.tx.us/.
