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Bell County Election Office says midterms turnout feels like a presidential election

KCEN Channel 6 reporter Andrew Moore made his way around Bell County to gauge voter turnout at the polls on Election Day.

BELL COUNTY, Texas — Early voting numbers were at record highs this year, and plenty of people are still turning out on Election Day.

KCEN Channel 6 reporter Andrew Moore toured Bell County to gauge voter turnout at the polls. Voter turnout was consistent throughout the county, but it was an unusual election for a couple of reasons.

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Compared to the last midterm, three times as many people showed up for early voting this election, the Bell County Election Office said. Some officials even said it felt like a presidential election year.

Bell County is now using electronic ballots in addition to paper ones. Voters who used the machines said it made the process smoother.

"Made it a lot easier, each name had 'REP,' 'DEM' or 'LIB.'" Alvaro Loaiza from Temple said.

One voter said polling locations should've had more machines.

"The issues is there was only a handful of electronic voting machines, all the rest were manual," Randy Ramsey from Temple said.

KCEN Channel 6 also checked out a few rumors floating around the polls today.

One claimed a Temple polling place was changed from one church to another at the last minute to confuse voters, but that was false. The correct polling place was posted ahead of time.

Another rumor claimed the polling location at Killeen Fire Station No. 5 had separate lines based on party. That was also false. The lines organized voters by last name.

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