As of Monday, Cameron County voters have cast nearly 20,000 early ballots in the Texas primary election, not including mail-in ballots. 

Election officials say early votes this cycle are almost the total amount of votes from both 2014 and 2018's race for governor, including election day and mail-in ballots. 

Cameron County Elections Administrator Remi Garza says the increase could lead to a higher turnout during election day. 

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"It's always a question of whether or not people are just voting early and participating and taking advantage of that," Garza said. "Or whether you're still going to have that same distribution of people who vote early and people who vote on election day." 

But it's not just overall participation that's increasing. Election officials say Republicans have more than doubled their early voting turnout since 2018.

Cameron County Republican Party Chairman Morgan Cisneros Graham says things like education and block walking contributed to the increase. 

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"A lot of these candidates could not do any of what they're doing had it not been for various state and federal PACs who in the past did not invest in us," Graham said. "It took the great increases of the 2020 general election to really convince them. With that investment and with those resources, additional training, and also that faith, I think it's done a great deal to encourage our volunteers as well as our voters to turn out."

For more election coverage, head to KRGV.com/elections.