As clocks struck 7:00 pm and early voting came to a close at the Santa Fe Building, election watchers were surprised to find that early voting in the 108th District Court Judge runoff had beat the turnout for the 2022 Potter County runoffs.

This year’s runoff had pit attorneys Sam Brown Silverman and Tim Pirtle against each other as they vie for the GOP nomination, having beaten Pam Sirmon and Joe Marr Wilson in the contest to replace retiring Judge Douglass Woodburn. Parallels have been drawn between this year’s race and 2022’s 47th District Court Judge runoff between Joe Marr Wilson and Dee Johnson. However, this year’s runoff lacks any statewide top-of-ticket vote draws like 2022’s competition between Attorney Ken Paxton and challenger George P. Bush.

Despite predictions of a low turnout, 1,745 in-person early votes have been cast, compared with only 1,417 in 2022.

The most popular early-voting location has been the Santa Fe building. Like the other four locations, the highest turnout at the Santa Fe was seen on Friday, where 146 ballots were cast, bringing the total for the Santa Fe building to 612. Casey Carpet One narrowly beat out the Northwest Branch Library for second place, having seen 471 voters compared to the 438 at the Library. At Cornerstone Outreach, 172 votes were cast, while 52 were cast at the Tri-State Fairgrounds.

While early voting has seen a significant increase since 2022, mail-in voting is slightly down. As of writing, we only have the number of mail-in ballots received through yesterday, which was 383. This is fewer than the 545 received at that point in 2022. This could edge closer to 2022’s mail-in turnout, as there are still enough outstanding main-in ballots this year to overcome the 630 cast in 2022. But, even if that number isn’t beat, the increase in in-person turnout still means Potter County is now projected to beat the number of votes cast in the 2022 runoff.

It is unclear what is driving the turnout, though heavy spending by both candidates could be a key factor. According to finance reports filed earlier this week, nearly $100,000 has been spent by the two candidates since the primary election, up slightly from the total spent by Johnson and Wilson in the 2022 runoff. You can read our full story about the finance reports here.

Whoever wins the runoff will officially become the Republican Party Nominee for the 108th District Court. Since no other parties have fielded candidates in the race, the runoff winner is expected to win the general election in November unopposed.

Runoff Election Day is Tuesday, May 28th. Polls will be open 7:00 am to 7:00 pm.