Texas Early Voting Just Surpassed All Votes Cast In 2016; Hawaii Breaks 2008 Record Tyler Durden Fri, 10/30/2020 - 09:50 Early voting in Texas and Hawaii have broken records - with Texas having surpassed the total number of ballots cast in the 2016 election, and Hawaii breaking their previous turnout record in 2008, when Barack Obama was elected president. A worker puts a ballot into a secure box at a drive-thru mail ballot hand delivery center in Austin in October. (Photo: Sergio Flores/Bloomberg) In Texas, at least 9,009,850 votes have been cast, surpassing the state's record of 8,969,226 cast in 2016. It is not known which party will benefit most from the surge. Breaking: Texas just surpassed its 2016 total votes cast w/ one day of early voting & Election Day left to go. The state is reporting 9,009,850 votes already cast, vs. the all-time record of 8,969,226 in 2016. This is massive. — Dave Wasserman (@Redistrict) https://twitter.com/Redistrict/status/1322160084651266048?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+"://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs"); According to Bloomberg, "Nowhere has seen a more dramatic display of enthusiasm than Harris County, home to Houston, Texas’s biggest city and the embodiment of its rapid growth and diversifying suburbs. The county’s voting, driven in part by innovations by freshly appointed County Clerk Chris Hollins, so far compose more than 15% of all those cast in the sprawling state." As we noted on Thursday, the flood of early voting has some Democrats hopeful that they can flip the historically red state blue, as a flood of Californians have been moving to the state over the last few years to escape high taxes and squalor in its major cities. If they are able to flip the state blue, one has to wonder if San Francisco's drug needle and poo-coated streets are next? Many of the Texas counties with the most dramatic surges in early voting are urban centers like Houston, a trend infusing fresh hope into Democrats’ dreams of flipping Texas. But solidly red counties have also seen records. And Texas has historically been lightly polled, leaving analysts skeptical of surveys showing a neck-and-neck presidential race. -Bloomberg In Hawaii, statewide voter turnout as of Tuesday was approximately 55% according to the county clerks' offices. Of the 830,000 individuals registered to vote in the November 3 general election, 457,294 ballots have been received, according to Honolulu Civil Beat. Tuesday was the last day voters in Hawaii were asked to mail in ballots. Between now and election day, voters can use a drop box or vote in person at a voter service center.