A collapse in the number of young voters helped drive a sharp drop in turnout in El Paso Republican and Democratic primaries, an El Paso Matters analysis of voting records shows.
The total number of early votes cast for the primaries was down by 32% from 2020 levels, while the number of voters under 30 plunged by 73%.
El Paso had just 1,171 early voters under age 30 and 1,437 age 85 and older, even though the number of registered voters under 30 is almost nine times larger. The 11-day early voting period ended Friday, and Election Day is Tuesday.
Rudee Valenciana, 23, who lives in Central El Paso, cast her first vote in the November 2018 election a few weeks after she turned 18. She said she was motivated to get engaged because she was devastated by Donald Trump’s election as president in 2016.
“At that time I wouldn’t have said I was super well rounded in the topic but I knew I had my beliefs and didn’t feel like he aligned with mine. When I turned 18 I was anxious to vote in order to feel like I could contribute to my cause,” she said.
Her first primary vote came in the 2020 Democratic presidential race.
“I was anxious to support Bernie Sanders because I felt he aligned with my beliefs. I do believe voting and standing up in numbers works,” Valenciana said.
But she has no plans to vote in this year’s primary election, which doesn’t include a contested Democratic presidential contest but does have races for district attorney and sheriff, among other local offices.
“As much as I want change, I haven’t had the time to educate myself on the current candidates and I wouldn’t want to make a vote on something I wasn’t sure about,” Valenciana said, adding that she plans to vote in the November general election.
Democrats cast more than 20,000 ballots in the early voting period that ended Friday, sharply off from the 2020 primary that still had a tight race between Joe Biden and Sanders when Texans voted during Super Tuesday. Just over 8,400 El Paso Republicans cast early votes his year, down slightly from four years ago,when Trump faced no GOP opposition.
The combined early voting turnout of just under 29,000 was about 6% of registered voters in El Paso County.
As is typical in early voting, many of the ballots came from older El Pasoans. The median age of Democratic primary voters was more than 64; for Republicans it was 61.
Fewer than 1,200 early voters were under age 30, which is 1% of the registered voters in that age group. Almost 16% of registered voters age 65 and older turned out for early voting.
But the absence of younger El Paso County voters was even more pronounced this year, with candidates in both major parties struggling to excite them. People under 30 made up just 4% of early voters even though they represent 23% of registered voters. The Texas Tribune found a similar pattern in statewide early voting.
The number of El Paso early voters under age 30 plunged 80% from the 2020 Democratic primary. In the Republican primary, the number of voters under 30 declined by 30% from 2020.
More than 2,600 people under age 30 who are still registered to vote in El Paso County cast early votes in the 2020 primary election. Of those, more than 2,400 – 93% – did not cast an early vote in 2024 primaries, according to an El Paso Matters analysis of voting records.
Registered voters who haven’t yet cast ballots in the primary elections can do so from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday.
Voters no longer need to go to an assigned neighborhood precinct on Election Day. Every voter can go to any of the 116 voting centers in the county.
