Voter turnout in DeWitt County amounted to 16.6% of registered voters, over the estimated statewide rate of nearly 15% in the Nov. 4 Texas Constitutional Amendment Election, according to County Elections Administrator Deidra McCollum’s local statistics.
The unofficial statistics show that 1,876 of DeWitt County’s 11,328 registered voters cast ballots. Of those ballots, 850 were cast early.
Statewide, an estimated 2.9 million votes were cast. That is expected to set a record for the state’s turnout for constitutional amendment elections, according to political observers.
The reason for apparent increased voter interest in constitutional amendment elections locally and statewide is unclear.
“I have no comment on the differences in voter turnout,” McCollum said.
The Texas Secretary of State’s Election Office has not yet published statistics on turnout for the Nov. 5 election.
Voter turnout in odd-numbered years for constitutional amendments is traditionally lower than in even-numbered years featuring candidates, but generally voters affirm the measures presented by the Texas Legislature, according to Texas Policy Research, a nonpartisan public policy organization.
Texas voters approved all 17 of the proposed amendments on the ballot.
The amendments represented a wide range of issues, including property tax relief, infrastructure investment, bail reform, parental rights and border security. Most passed by large margins with Proposition 6 that banned security transaction taxes passing with just 54.9% of the vote.
The organization noted that the number of constitutional amendments approved by voters since 1876 rose to 547 with the results of the Tuesday election.
An increased rate of voter turnout in De-Witt County occurred in 2023 when 19% of registered voters cast ballots, compared to 14.4% statewide. The number of voters responding to the 17 amendments that year represented the largest turnout in Texas constitutional amendment elections since 2005 with 2.5 million going to the polls.
DeWitt County voter turnout in the 2021 election featuring eight proposed amendments amounted to 9.3%, about the same as the statewide count of 9%.
