9 million Texans voted early in 2024. Heres how that compares to previous years. [Video]

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Fewer Texans — especially in the state’s largest cities — voted early this year compared to 2020, according to a Texas Tribune analysis of state data.

More than 9 million Texans either voted in person during the two weeks of early voting or returned their absentee ballots by Nov. 1, state data shows. That’s 48.6% of all registered voters. In 2020, 9.7 million, or 57.2% of registered voters, went to the polls or turned in their ballot during the same period in 2020.

The lag is largely attributed to a dramatic decline in mail-in voting. About 8.7 million Texans voted …