The pace has picked up in early voting for next weekend’s city election, though we’re still behind the pace for the 2005 election (which featured the strong mayor initiative). Through Saturday, some 32,000 people voted, about 5,300 a day. That compares to 6,500 a day in 2005.
We’re about where we were in the 2007 election, which included the mayor’s race. Interestingly, we’re far ahead of the pace in the Trinity referendum in 2007, when just 3,100 people voted early each day.
What does this mean for the hotel vote and the two Oak Cliff-area council races? A higher early voter turnout is probably good news for those who don’t want to build the hotel, but it’s more difficult to tell for the council races. There’s no incumbent in District 1, and the race in District 3 is very low key. And, in fact, it doesn’t look like neighborhood voters are turning out, even by municipal race standards. So far, only 1,495 people have voted early at the Oak Cliff sub-courthouse, compared to 2,026 in 2007. We’re not on pace to better that total.
