Texarkana area's early voting numbers on pace to match 2016 turnout | Early voting ends today for voters in Miller County

Both Bowie and Miller counties' early voting numbers for Tuesday's primary election seem to run closer to 2016's primary voter-participation numbers, according to elections officials.

As of mid-afternoon Friday, 4,357 Bowie County residents had voted early, Bowie County Elections Administrator Pat McCoy said.

Although he didn't have exact figures regarding the past two primary elections, McCoy said that the county's early voting numbers seemed to outpace totals received during the March 2018 primary, but they came closer to matching those collected in the March 2016 primary.

McCoy also said this year's relocation from the Bi-State Justice Center to the Southwest Center helped to create a more voter-friendly environment - particularly with regard to parking.

"Prior to to this year, we only had about two parking spaces designated for early voting at the Bi-State," he said. "Apart from that, voters had to find places to park - like near Union Station and whereever else they could. Out at Southwest Center people had more parking spaces and if the spaces ever became full, there was an open field nearby."

As for Miller County, Linda Crawford, the county's elections coordinator, said that as of Friday afternoon 1,167 residents had voted but that total doesn't include today's early voting, which continues through this afternoon. Bowie County's early voting ended early Friday evening.

Crawford added that a about 1,952 residents voted in the 2018 primary.

"We look for this year's primary to be pretty close to 2016's primary, which brought in 2,576 voters,"she said.

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