HOUSTON – The University of Houston is taking a deep dive into Harris County’s record-setting early voting turnout numbers that made history and headlines around the nation.
The Center for Mexican American Studies and the UH Election Lab tracked data from the first five days of early voting in Harris County.
“We use data from the County Clerk’s office to look to see where people are voting number one, where the hotspots are, but also number two, look at trends with respect to partisanship and ethnicity and race, so we can get a really good picture of where Houstonians and where Harris County residents were voting,” said political science professor Brandon Rottinghaus who developed the project with Jeronimo Cortina.
University of Houston political science professor Brandon Rottinghaus is part of a team that tracked the first five days of early voting in Harris County.
“We definitely see enthusiasm," Rottinghaus said. “There’s no question about that, but whether that enthusiasm supports the party efforts of one or the other is unknown, since there are a lot of people who are new to the state and our voting for the first time in Texas, whether they back Team Red or Team Blue, we just don’t know right now.”