HARRIS COUNTY, Texas — Harris County early voters have turned out in record-breaking numbers.
Harris County Clerk Teneshia Hudspeth said 46 percent of registered voters have already cast their ballots. However, nearly 1.5 million registered voters could still turn up on Election Day.
Harris County election headquarters is the distribution and rallying point. The 12,000 election workers gathered to determine what they needed to set up the 700 voting locations around the county.
"I understand there is high anxiety. There's concerns people are saying many different things across our nation, but we have had a really smooth early voting In Harris County," said Hudspeth. "All of the votes are sent here from our Central County voting station election day results will be reported through the night into November 6."
In a letter from the U.S. Department of Justice, federal monitors have been instructed to monitor compliance with federal voting rights laws. However, according to the Secretary of State and Governor Gregg Abbott, Texas law prevents federal monitors from being inside polling locations or where votes are being counted.
"Typically, federal observers have done many things. I have known in the past prior to me becoming county clerk of them coming to facilities. To the extent of addressing what is coming down from the secretary of state and DOJ. That’s between those two. My job is to focus on the election," said Hudspeth.
Churning out supplies will happen at election headquarters all weekend. When the election is done, it'll all come back here. A space like this has been years in the making.
Hudspeth said it'll handle the load but has room to accommodate the expected future growth in the county.
"To be able to see this come to fruition in 2024 is excellent. For many years in Harris County, we conducted elections out of multiple places. We’ve had to rent out spaces like NRG put up our election headquarters. And break it down again."
KHOU 11 will have you covered throughout Election Day, from before polls open until well after they close.
At 4 p.m. on Tuesday, watch KHOU 11’s live coverage on air and on KHOU 11+, which you can download for free on Roku, FireTV and AppleTV. At 6 p.m., our live streaming coverage of Election Night continues on KHOU 11+ with updates from election officials, our panel of experts, and KHOU 11 News teams spread across the city and state. Streaming coverage will continue through the night into KHOU 11 Morning News from 4:30 a.m. until 7 a.m. on Wednesday morning, and we'll have more streaming coverage on KHOU 11+ after that.