Record early voting turnout in Texas this week has Democrats hopeful that their candidate, Joe Biden, could for the first time since Jimmy Carter in 1976 turn the state blue in November.
The latest data from the Texas Secretary of State’s office shows 16.9 million Texans are registered to vote in this election, a rise of 1.8 million on 2016.
The Lone Star state started early voting on Tuesday and is setting records in the first two days.
More than 128,000 people in Harris county, the state's largest, voted on Tuesday, almost double the 67,741 who turned up on the first day in 2016.
By 3pm on Wednesday, the Harris county clerk tweeted that another 70,000 had voted.
Higher turnout is also being reported in the Democratic-leaning college areas in Houston:
In Travis county in Austin, which favours the Democrats, 97 per cent of eligible voters are registered to cast their ballot.
Longer waiting times were reported at all of the county’s polling places on Tuesday:
Ryan Bohl, an Austin resident and voter, described the mood as very enthusiastic in Travis county.
"There is obviously very high enthusiasm in Travis county to vote," Mr Bohl told The National.
"I've heard a lot about long lines and the county official who spoke to me said I should expect to work the polls well past closing should there still be a line."
He said the mood was even more intense than 2018, when Democratic Congressman Beto O’Rourke almost unseated Republican Senator Ted Cruz and lost by only 2.5 per cent.
That is the closest margin the Democrats have recorded in Texas in decades.
“I have seen a fair share of Joe Biden and Donald Trump advertisements on TV here, which suggests that both campaigns see Texas as up for grabs,” Mr Bohl said.
The pandemic, police reforms, the economy and immigration are all issues at play in the Texas election.
A poll by Morning Consult last week showed US President Donald Trump leading Mr Biden in the state by only two points.
Mr Trump won the state in 2016 by nine points against Hillary Clinton, and former Republican nominee Mitt Romney beat Barack Obama by 16 points in 2012.
Experts say Texas’s 38 electoral votes could offer the Democrats a landslide victory on November 3, but only if they outperformed the polls and drove turnout among key demographics.
Galen Druke, of the election statistics website FiveThirtyEight, described Texas as a "majority-minority" state that is ripe for the Democrats in 2020.
"Texas may be a southern state, it may be a republican state, but it’s highly urbanised,” Mr Druke said in a recent podcast.
He said the state was 41 per cent white, 40 per cent Hispanic, 13 per cent black and 5 per cent Asian.
Mr Druke said a higher turnout, especially among minorities, suburban voters and college-educated whites, could help Mr Biden to outperform the polls.
“In recent elections, polls have underestimated Democrats by two to three points," he said.
"I wouldn’t be shocked if Mr Biden ends up winning the state."
Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott won a legal battle this week limiting the number of drop-off sites in each county to one.
In Harris county where 4.7 million people live, that meant longer car queues.
But these measures have not stifled the turnout so far and will at least mean a close result in Texas.
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RESULTS
Manchester United 2
Anthony Martial 30'
Scott McTominay 90 6'
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Email sent to Uber team from chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi
From: Dara
To: Team@
Date: March 25, 2019 at 11:45pm PT
Subj: Accelerating in the Middle East
Five years ago, Uber launched in the Middle East. It was the start of an incredible journey, with millions of riders and drivers finding new ways to move and work in a dynamic region that’s become so important to Uber. Now Pakistan is one of our fastest-growing markets in the world, women are driving with Uber across Saudi Arabia, and we chose Cairo to launch our first Uber Bus product late last year.
Today we are taking the next step in this journey—well, it’s more like a leap, and a big one: in a few minutes, we’ll announce that we’ve agreed to acquire Careem. Importantly, we intend to operate Careem independently, under the leadership of co-founder and current CEO Mudassir Sheikha. I’ve gotten to know both co-founders, Mudassir and Magnus Olsson, and what they have built is truly extraordinary. They are first-class entrepreneurs who share our platform vision and, like us, have launched a wide range of products—from digital payments to food delivery—to serve consumers.
I expect many of you will ask how we arrived at this structure, meaning allowing Careem to maintain an independent brand and operate separately. After careful consideration, we decided that this framework has the advantage of letting us build new products and try new ideas across not one, but two, strong brands, with strong operators within each. Over time, by integrating parts of our networks, we can operate more efficiently, achieve even lower wait times, expand new products like high-capacity vehicles and payments, and quicken the already remarkable pace of innovation in the region.
This acquisition is subject to regulatory approval in various countries, which we don’t expect before Q1 2020. Until then, nothing changes. And since both companies will continue to largely operate separately after the acquisition, very little will change in either teams’ day-to-day operations post-close. Today’s news is a testament to the incredible business our team has worked so hard to build.
It’s a great day for the Middle East, for the region’s thriving tech sector, for Careem, and for Uber.
Uber on,
Dara
