Darker grey areas are higher turnout, while darker red circles are a larger decrease in turnout/Graphic by The Amarillo Pioneer
Amarillo could be on track for a larger-than-average decrease in turnout in this year’s runoff election.
Historically, City of Amarillo runoffs have seen a 40% decrease in turnout compared to the first round. However, when early voting concluded in this year’s runoff, turnout was down 45.8% compared to the early voting turnout in the lead-up to the May 6th election.
Multiple factors could be contributing to this decrease in turnout. First, the May 6th election turnout was one of the highest in Amarillo's history. While runoff candidates have been working hard to recapture that turnout, some voters may be tired of election season. Another factor seems to have been that there was one less day of early voting in the runoff than in the first round. While both the runoff and first-round elections featured five weekdays during the first week of early voting, the runoff only had one day of early voting in the second week, compared to two days during the first round.
The decrease in turnout was most prominent in Potter County, which saw a 48.7% dip in turnout, while Randall County saw a 44.0% dip. The precinct with the largest dip in turnout was Potter County Precinct 327, which recorded 73 early voting ballots in the first round but only 12 in the runoff. In Randall County, Precinct 415 saw the largest dip in turnout, having recorded 57.9% fewer votes.
While Potter County had many of the precincts with the largest decrease in turnout, it also had the precinct with the smallest decrease. Potter County Precinct 426, which recorded 16 early voting ballots in the first round, recorded 12 in the runoff. This was one of the few precincts won by Hobert “Gunny” Brown, who received third place in the first round and did not make it to the runoff.
The precinct with the highest turnout overall was Randall County Precinct 228, which recorded 522 early voting ballots in the runoff. The smallest turnout was also in Randall County, with Precinct 317 only seeing 2 early voting ballots cast in the runoff. The highest turnout for Potter was Precinct 324, which has seen 390 early voting ballots cast in the runoff. Potter County Precinct 427 had the lowest turnout in Potter, with only 7 early voting ballots cast in the runoff.
Interactive maps of early voting turnout can be found at this link. Our runoff voter guide can be found at this link. Election Day is Saturday, June 24th.