The Nov. 5 general election, which included races for federal and local offices, saw a 68.1% voter turnout in Hays County.
The turnout this year was lower than the previous presidential election in 2020, which had a 71.58% turnout rate. Despite the lower turnout percentage, there were 16,720 more votes this year.
In Hays County, voter turnout is calculated using voter registration figures. A decrease in turnout but an increase in voter registration indicates the number of newly registered voters outpaced the growth in ballots cast.
“I would say there’s been a lot of effort… in the last several years to really focus on voter registration,” Roger Abshire, political science professor of instruction, said. “Registering involves just filling out a form. Whether a person is more inclined to exercise their vote [once registered]… there seems to be a disconnect between those two things.”
Hays County’s trend reflects the statewide trend, where despite record levels of voter registration, there was a lower overall turnout.
Besides registration efforts making a difference, Hays County has experienced rapid growth since 2020. According to data from the Census Bureau, Hays County’s population increased by nearly 40,000 people from April 2020 to July 2023.
The University of Florida’s Election Lab reported voter turnout is trending upward nationwide. Abshire argued 2024 has continued that trend, with 2020’s turnout being a statistical outlier.
“[Turnout] has been trending up very slowly. There was a big uptick in 2020, it was the highest presidential turnout rate in a long time,” Abshire said. “So it may not be so much that 2024 was abnormally low… it might just be that 2020 was just really big.”
There are many factors contributing to lower voter turnout in an election year. According to an article from The University of Rochester, some of these reasons can include party affiliation, timing and weather.
Texas has not elected a Democrat to a statewide office since 1994, meaning the state has been reliably Republican at the state and federal level for 30 consecutive years.
According to Abshire, media coverage focuses on statewide and federal elections, which may not be competitive, but often ignore local elections. He said that may contribute to voters feeling like their vote doesn’t matter.
“When you get reporting on politics, it’s often the national perspective, even [in] local newspapers,” Abshire said. “Even within Texas, there are competitive races, especially if you go to local races.”
While the turnout was down from 2020, the turnout was significantly higher than the 2023 constitutional amendments election and 2022 midterms. The 2023 midterms had a 15.17% voter turnout and 2022 had 52.81% of registered voters cast a ballot.
“Low turnout is most pronounced in primary elections, off-year elections for state legislators and local elections.,” FairVote wrote.
Abshire said that another factor that may discourage voting is the “cost” of voting, such as time spent researching information about candidates.
“There’s an information cost to voting and that’s one of the biggest costs of voting that we talk about in political science,” Abshire said. “The cost of voting, the actual time and effort that it takes to go to the polling place, means that a lot of people… have to make the choice of about whether it’s worth going to vote.”
There are several ideas for how to increase voter turnout. Some ideas include making Election Day a national holiday, making voter registration easier and more. According to Abshire, those efforts may help, but age and education are the largest determining factors of voting habits, rather than ease of access.
“The more education you have the higher your turnout is. We’re talking about a 50- point spread. In 2022 [people with] no high school education had 20% turnout rate, post grads had 70%,” Abshire said.
The Hays County runoff election is on Dec. 14. Early voting begins Dec. 3 and runs until Dec. 10.
The Hays County Elections Office did not respond to a request for comment.
To view the official results of the Hays County elections, visit its website.
