Collin County election officials say early voting for the Tuesday, Nov. 3, general election was brisk in the first week, but so far not as heavy as the similar periods prior to the November 2022 and 2024 elections. 

There had been 214,742 in-person voter check-ins after seven days of early voting, from Oct. 19 through Oct. 25, said Collin County Elections Administrator Kaleb Breaux.

That compared with 501,190 during the first week of early voting for the 2024 general election and 352,294 in 2022. 

Breaux also said his department had received 15,560 requests for ballots by mail that have been processed and mailed. 

Early voting ends Friday, Oct. 30, at 42 locations. 

Breaux said Gay Library in McKinney, Davis Library in West Plano and the Allen Public Library had been three of the busiest locations during the first week.

Breaux said Collin County had 795,752 registered voters eligible to cast ballots in the election. But because the county now uses hand-marked paper ballots printed on demand after check-in, voters may vote at any of the 90 polling locations open 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Election Day.

The elections administrator encouraged voters to plan for where to vote and perhaps consider voting at another location close to them that may not be quite so busy. Voting locations and wait times may be found under polling locations on collincountytx.gov/elections.

Breaux said total Collin County turnout was 69.19% in the November 2024 election and 52.56% in November 2022. 

“I think we are on pace for a possible 65% to 70% turnout for this election,” he said. “As voter participation increases and the window of opportunity to vote closes, I would just encourage voters to remain patience and vote with grace as they interact with our election officials.”

This year’s early voting got off to a shaky start on Oct. 19, Breaux said.

“We had 10 polling locations that experienced some printer outages in the first hour or so of voting,” he said. “We were able to resolve most issues by 9:30 a.m.”

Collin County switched last year from ballot marking devices (BMDs) to paper ballots that are marked by hand.

“Most voters that we hear from feel like this process takes longs a little longer and liked the ballot marking device’s help in the marking process,” Breaux said. 

But he added it was only a small fraction of voters who commented. “Honestly, it’s probably the same amount that we heard from when we had BMDs, and those folks wanted hand-marked ballots,” he said.

Proposition D on the ballot is a County proposal to issue $40 million in bonds “for the purpose of designing, developing, constructing, and equipping a new County elections and storage facility, including election department offices, election training, election storage, County records, historical documents and equipment storage.”

Breaux said the switch to hand-marked ballots added to the need for more space but was not the only factor. 

“We were part of a space study a few years ago, and the study concluded that we were in about half of the space that we should be in,” he said. “We currently have 25,000 square feet of space (give or take). The study concluded that we should be in about 55,000 square feet of space.”

The elections administrator said the hand-mark ballot equipment is taking up a larger footprint in warehouse space, but growth was also playing a part in his department’s needs. 

“We trained more than 900 workers for this election, and our training space only allows for about 40 participants at a time,” Breaux said. “This is another huge need for us also. We are just out of space here.”

Dallas County voters will decide Nov. 3 whether to approve a 2.4-cent property tax increase that county officials say would help fund efforts to reduce homelessness, address encampments and expand access to mental health and housing programs.

Dallas County commissioners approved an election order Aug. 11 calling the voter-approval tax rate election, or VATRE, for the 2026 tax year.

If approved, the higher tax rate is expected to generate about $102.9 million in additional revenue, according to the county.

Officials say the money would be used for programs focused on reducing homelessness and resolving encampments, increasing access to mental health treatment and supporting programs that provide stable housing.

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