Texas early voters for this year have now surpassed the total voter turnout in all of 2016 on Friday morning.

Texans Casts Their Vote On Last Day Of Early Voting In The State
People wait in line to vote at Fretz Park Branch Dallas Public Library on the last day of early voting on October 29, 2020 in Dallas, Texas. Montinique Monroe/Getty Images

Voter turnout in the state stood at 9,009,850 early voters through Thursday, according to the Texas Secretary of State's office. That amounts to 53.14% of all registered voters, said NBC News.

In 2016, the voter turnout for the state's presidential race was 8,969,226.

Since then, 1.8 million registered voters were added in Texas.

So even though raw ballot counting said there were more early voters than before, the overall percentage turnout is still lower than 2016's 59.4% turnout.

Early voting in Texas began October 13 and ended Friday. The surge in votes may also in part be caused by high turnout due to the COVID-19 pandemic or other timing factors.

Governor Greg Abbott issued an order granting six extra days for Texans to participate in early voting. This is in hopes that polling locations will be less crowded during the pandemic.

Texans have also developed voting habits over time, having been more likely to vote early since the 2008 election.

Texas to Hit Record-Breaking Voting Numbers

Texas Tribune projected that once Election Day and mail-in ballots are counted, Texas will hit record-breaking voter turnouts.

This year, the state could surpass 60% voter turnout for the first time since the early 1990s.

Harris County also set an all-time record with voter turnout on Thursday night, reported NPR.

"We just hit our highest voter turnout. Ever," said Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo in a tweet.

Judge Hidalgo reported that nearly 1.4 million votes were cast in the county alone, with early voting not yet wrapped up.

"Let's run up the score, Texas!" she encouraged.

According to University of Florida political science professor Michael McDonald, Texas joined Hawaii in surpassing 2016 voter turnout figures through early voting alone.

McDonald also runs the U.S. Elections Project.

In the 2016 Elections, Donald Trump won the state with about nine points ahead of Hillary Clinton, 52.23% to 43.24%. The state has 38 electoral votes.

Who is Winning in Texas?

For decades, Texas has been known as a dominantly red state. Since 1980, the state has been voting for the Republican presidential nominee during general elections.

But this year has been quite a remarkable one for the state.

Recent polls show that President Donald Trump is on a very tight presidential race against Democratic challenger Joe Biden.

Trump is at a slim lead of 2.3% in the state, according to the Real Clear Politics polling average.

National prognosticators are calling the coming November 3 elections a "toss-up" for Texas.

In this category, Texas joined traditional swing states like Nevada, Pennsylvania, Florida and Ohio.

Democrats are hoping that the Texas House is going to be flipped, placing about 12 congressional sets in serious contention.

Since the state doesn't collect party affiliation, it's difficult to say which party is winning in the current turnout.

But in all of America, more than 83.5 million people have already voted.

In-person votes make up 29.5 million while 54 million voters cast their ballots through mail.

Check these out:

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