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Young El Paso voters slow to turn out for primary early voting [1]

['Robert Moore', 'More Robert Moore', 'El Paso Matters']

Date: 2024-02-27

Early voting in the Democratic and Republican primaries has been sluggish after one week.

After Monday’s seventh day of early voting, slightly more than 16,500 El Paso County voters had cast ballots in one of the two primaries, or about 3% of registered voters. That’s down from just under 21,000 in 2020, the last primary election with presidential candidates on the ballot.

The 2020 Democratic presidential race was still hotly contested during the Texas primary, while President Biden faces only token opposition this year. President Trump was essentially uncontested in the 2020 GOP primary and is closing in on locking up the Republican nomination this year.

Early voting continues through Friday, March 1. Election Day is Tuesday, March 5.

Here’s what El Paso’s electorate looks like so far in the 2024 primaries.

Voters by age

The median Republican voter age is just under 62, meaning half the voters are older and half younger. For Democrats, the median age is more than 65. This is a typical pattern for El Paso, where the first days of early voting are dominated by senior citizens.

The number of El Paso registered voters under age 30 is about 14,000 higher than those over 65, but the age of people actually voting so far is starkly different.

The Republican primary has seen 10.5 voters over age 65 for every one voter under age 30. In the Democratic primary, the ratio is 18 to 1 though the first week of early voting.

Voters by sex

Overall, the number of men and women voters is roughly equal, which is a departure from past elections, where women have tended to outnumber men. But there is a definite gender gap between the parties, which has been a decades-long trend in the United States.

Women make up 53% of Democratic primary voters so far, compared to 45% of Republican voters. Put another way, about 77% of women voters so far have cast ballots in the Democratic primary, compared to 70% of men.

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[1] Url: https://elpasomatters.org/2024/02/27/election-2024-early-voting-turnout-march-primaries/

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