TEXAS, USA — Polls show the race for U.S. President in Texas may be too difficult to call. A poll released Sunday from the Dallas Morning News and the University of Texas at Tyler put Joe Biden up three points. A University of Houston poll released Monday put Donald Trump up five points. But with so many new voters voting in Texas, party leaders have little trust in those polls.
"When people say, 'Oh we've got this' or, 'Biden's a half a point up,' We don't (really) know," Mclennan County Democratic Chair Mary Duty said. "It depends on who shows up to vote and frankly it depends on a large chunk of people."
Duty said there are some people who have crossed party lines to oppose the president and there are also plenty of voters that haven't voted before. She said the Democratic Party still can't take anything for granted and can only spend as much time as possible making sure people get out to vote.
"At this point, polls don't matter because polls don't win elections. Voters win elections. People who are impassioned by what they have heard or read," Duty said.
On the Republican side, McLennan County Chairmain Brad Holland said the party is working diligently to contact any previous Republican primary voter that hasn't gotten to the polls yet and text them a reminder. Holland said he has confidence that Republicans will win McLennan County but victory is by no means assured with statewide races.
"While we feel quite confident in our local races, both statehouse races and statewide races we are watching very closely," Holland said. "Some of these are really close so your vote counts more than ever."
Holland said races are now more unpredictable and there is a large number of new voters out this year that have no history or supporting either party.
"The voters who don't have a history, that we can't predict how they are going to vote, are a sizable block," Holland said. "How that block breaks, for democrats or republicans, will have a major say in the race and nobody know that quite yet."
Holland said 28 percent of voters that showed up over the weekend were in an undetermined category.
Both parties in McLennan county are texting or calling residents who have not yet voted. Holland said the party now has the ability to get lists of people who have voted each day from the county election administrator and can, after some deep analysis, find out what local voters that typical swing republican have not yet voted. They determine the pattern by looking at what party primaries a voter previously voted in.
"The speed at which you can determine who has and hasn't voted and voting trends, all that technology is increasing," Holland said.
Duty said the democratic party is also working to track down unregistered voters and have been working on voter turnout for months. Now, with one week left to go, party leaders still can't be certain of anything. That includes polls.
"We listened to the polls last time and look where it got us," Duty said.
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