Early votes in Texas soar past 2016 turnout

[NFA] With four days remaining in the U.S. presidential campaign, more than 9 million people have cast ballots in Texas, eclipsing total turnout from 2016, the Texas secretary of state's office said on Friday.

This report produced by Jillian Kitchener.

There are still a few days left until election day, but Texas has already cast over 9 million ballots.

That’s more than the total number of votes cast in the state than in the 2016 race.

Early voting has set records this year across the board.

According to the U.S. Elections Project at the University of Florida - nationwide voter turnout is already approaching 60% of the 2016 total.

Texas is the second state, along with Hawaii, to already surpass its 2016 total.

Some voters in the lone star state says the stakes are higher this time around: “I've never been a political person until this election honestly.

I'm just really concerned about our country and where it's headed right now.” “Texans in general are pretty fed up with how things have been.” With turnout so high, Democrats are in a last-minute bid to flip the deep red state blue.

Biden's running mate Kamala Harris toured the state on Friday urging voters not to let up: "Today is the last day of early voting in Texas and you all have been doing your thing!

…There is so much at stake and so many reasons to vote." Texas hasn’t voted for a Democrat for president since 1976.

The Trump campaign has claimed - according to its own internal analysis - that the president is ahead by hundreds of thousands of votes among early ballots.

"Texas - we're doing very well." And while Donald Trump took the state by 9 percentage points in 2016, polls suggest Democratic nominee Joe Biden is effectively tied with the president in Texas.