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Collin County voters turnout in record numbers
By Zach Markovic, zmarkovic@acnpapers.com
With only one exception, this year’s primary races saw more voters make their way to the ballot box than Collin County has seen in decades.
The exception is 2008, a historical election year that brought out 124,614 voters -- 32 percent of the voting population. The average usually sits around 30,000 voters, and a 5- to 8-percent turnout. Tuesday’s vote count came out to 63,766 ballots cast, representing 15 percent voter turnout.
Some say the turnout at the 2010 primaries was helped by the number of candidates in the field, while others point to grass-root efforts by the likes of local Tea Parties.
“I think with all the candidates we had running, their efforts in exciting the public drove the turnout,” Moses said. “Plus, I think the work done by the Tea Parties was important. That led to a pretty exciting and vibrant turnout.”
Stewart Matthews echoed the sentiment and said the voter turnout added to the races. He is currently in the runoff for Collin Court of Law No. 3 against Lance Baxter. He said the turnout definitely made the races interesting for those new to running for elected office.
“I am a rookie at this sort of thing,” he said. “With so many voters out there I need to get my message out the best I can.”
Other candidates were encouraged by the numbers. Low turnout has been one of the major criticisms leveled at the citizens of Collin County. John Muns, who was defeated in the County Judge primary by incumbent Keith Self, said higher voter turnout gives the county a clear understanding of the citizens’ needs.
“I am very encouraged, and I am glad more people got involved with the process,” he said.
But, there are candidates who said this is only a beginning and there is a long road ahead in getting more voters involved.
“I think (the turnout) is great if you look at all the past primaries, but there is still work to be done,” said Jay Bender, a candidate in the Court No. 6 runoff. “I literally fought for the right to vote, and it is great seeing people out there exercising that right.”
Tuesday’s turnout did cause some other issues. Moses said they had been prepared for a sizable turnout because of the amount of people in the race. But the number that came out on Election Day was not expected, which “certainly overwhelmed us.”
Moses said they had to use 600 paper ballots, which slows the counting process. While early voting totals posted at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, when 8:30 p.m. came and nothing was posted some candidates began to wonder if there was some sort of computer glitch. Counting all of the extra ballots meant results were not posted until close to 10 p.m.
“Based on past history, we had twice that amount of voters as expected which were kind of overwhelming numbers,” Moses said. “That created some challenges for us.”
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