Trump's popularity increases here, mail-in down

Trump's popularity increases here, mail-in down

Orange County loves Donald J. Trump as he racked up 83 percent of the votes cast in here in the latest election.

For his first run in 2016, he was at only 79 percent of the vote here and went up to 81 percent in 2020.

County information shows a big drop in the number of mail-in votes from 2020 coming after Trump and many of his followers complained of election problems and centered on mail-in ballots. No court in dozens of legal election challenges across the country ruled that any problems were found, even the courts overseen by Republican judges.

For the general election in 2020, the county had 2,387 mail-in votes and this year had only 965.

Donna Alford, director of the Orange County Elections Administration Office, presented the final statistics from the November 5 general election to Commissioners Court on Tuesday.

The county had a total of 56,515 registered voters with 36,466 casting ballots, or a turn-out of 64.5 percent. Those included 28,563 casting votes early and 6,938 cast on election day.

The county traditionally has a larger than average voter turn-out during years of presidential races.

This year, the Trump/Vance Republican ticket got a total of 30,191 votes with 538 mail-in, 24,088 from early votes, and 55,565 on election day. The Harris/Walz Democrats got 16.3 percent of the local vote with a total of 5,945 with 410 mail-in, 4,245 cast early, and 1,290 on election day.

The 2020 presidential election drew 36,058 voters. Republicans Trump/Pence received 29,170 votes, or 81 percent, with 1,388 mail-in, 23,267 cast early, and 4,513 on election day. Democrats Biden/Harris got 18 percent with 966 mail-in, 4,521 cast early, and 867 cast on election day.

Statistics from the 2016 election show 32,142 people voted out of 53,000. Orange County had 25,385 votes cast for Republicans Trump/Pence, or 79 percent. Democrats Clinton/Kaine ticket received 18 percent with 5,716 votes.