Early voting ended Friday. The state had more than 19 million registered voters, and 7.4 million cast ballots statewide from Oct. 19 to Oct. 30. In North Texas, 1.8 million people voted, according to county websites. Dallas County recorded 607,886 voters, Collin County 374,250, Denton County 319,081, and Tarrant County 571,950.
Tarrant County has long been seen as a political battleground. Matthew Wilson, a political science professor at Southern Methodist University, said the county is considered purple as the two parties have grown further apart. He said the county gets outsized attention in local races because Republicans there are still strongly competitive in an urban county. "They would really like to hold on to that, and Democrats would like to take that last Republican urban bastion," Wilson said.
Early voting sites across the county's 47 locations had long lines and waits of hours. At the White Settlement Public Library, wait times reached up to an hour. Voter Brenda Bedrosian, 76, said she left after seeing the line Wednesday afternoon but returned after deciding her vote was worth the wait. "It's a privilege to vote, it's a privilege to have a voice," Bedrosian said.