Well, give yourselves a slow, sarcastic round of applause, Randall and Potter counties — you’re officially on pace to shatter a record. Just not the kind you put on a bumper sticker.
Early voting turnout this year is so abysmally low it makes 2023 look like the Super Bowl of civic engagement. And when I say low, I mean "did anyone even remember there’s an election happening?" low. Like, "you could probably shout 'Free Pizza!' at the polling place and still only get five people" low.
But hey, let’s break it down for you — in case you missed the blinking neon signs, the social media posts, the newspaper articles, the reminders taped to every library door, and, you know, your basic sense of civic responsibility.
Randall County: Where Democracy Goes to Nap
In Randall County, the Southwest Branch Public Library and the Randall County Annex are out here doing God's work trying to resuscitate democracy. They've managed to pull in 1,557 and 1,630 voters, respectively. Not great, but at least they're breathing.
Meanwhile, over at the Randall County Justice Center, a whopping 374 people showed up. That’s not a turnout — that’s a mid-sized family barbecue.
Comanche Trail Church of Christ brought in a heroic 113 voters. Bless 'em. That's barely enough to start a decent game of dodgeball. And at the Election Administration Office? 155 votes. Basically, if tumbleweeds could vote, they might have outnumbered the humans.
As for mail-in ballots: out of 679 requested, only 455 have actually been returned. Yep — even the people who had one job (open envelope, mark paper, seal envelope, drop off) couldn’t quite bring themselves to cross the finish line. It's giving "I'll do it later," but later never came.
We did get a "surge" — and by surge, I mean the electoral equivalent of a belch — on Friday, April 25, when 991 voters showed up. Hold your applause, folks. Maybe even a single slow clap would be overdoing it.
Now, for some context: in 2023, Randall County racked up 11,533 early votes. This year? Down 66.8%. That’s not just a dip; that’s a full-on swan dive off a cliff into the icy waters of indifference.
Potter County: Anything You Can Do, We Can Also Fail At
Not to be outdone in the "we forgot democracy existed" department, Potter County is putting on its own sad show.
From April 22–25, they managed to scrape together 1,946 in-person votes across five locations. Northwest Library leads the sad little parade with 581 voters. Yay...?
Meanwhile, Tri-State Fairgrounds barely eked out 85 votes. Eighty-five. Honestly, you have better odds of seeing a UFO land in the parking lot than finding someone walking into that voting booth.
Mail-in numbers aren’t much prettier: 207 ballots requested, 116 actually returned. Again, we're apparently dealing with a real Herculean task here.
And if you’re wondering how that compares: Potter County logged 4,481 early votes in 2023. This year? Down 61.3%. At this rate, we’ll need to start offering free pizza, concert tickets, and a gas card just to get anyone off their couch.
Combined Forces of Meh
Together, Randall and Potter counties have barely scraped together 5,775 early votes. That’s just 36.1% of what they managed last year. And this in an area with a combined population of over 218,000.
Math isn’t even necessary to figure this one out: most of y’all just... didn’t.
So, What’s Going On?
Maybe you’re thinking, "It's just a local election. Who cares?" Stellar attitude. Seriously, give yourself a gold star in apathy.
Here's a reality check: local elections decide the stuff you love to rant about — property taxes, school funding, pothole repair, that weird zoning decision that put a 24-hour gas station next to your kid’s school. You know, real life stuff.
But go ahead, keep waiting for the fireworks, mudslinging, and presidential-level scandal if that’s the only way you can be motivated. Spoiler alert: local government still happens whether you show up or not. It’s like gravity — you can ignore it, but you’re still going to fall flat on your face eventually.
Maybe the problem is people simply don’t know when early voting ends? (Because apparently reading anything longer than a TikTok caption is too much.) In case you missed it, early voting ends Tuesday, April 29. That's practically tomorrow in political dog years.
Here’s Your Last Chance, Amarillo and Canyon:
If you miss early voting, your last shot at redemption is Election Day, Saturday, May 3.
Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Yes, that means you’ll need to put on real pants and physically go somewhere that isn’t your couch.
Yes, it requires marginally more effort than double-tapping your cousin’s meme about how "every vote counts."
Here’s the simple choice:
Option 1: Get out and vote. Feel the warm glow of knowing you actually did something to shape your community.
Option 2: Don’t vote. Then sit back, pop some popcorn, and enjoy the raging dumpster fire when the people who did bother to show up pick leaders and policies that you absolutely hate.
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