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(Bob Daemmrich/Austonia)
Logan Autrey votes on Election Day in south Austin at Monarca Ballroom.
As of 5 p.m., more than 43,000 Travis County residents have voted on Election Day.
"You should all be incredibly proud of yourselves for putting together such a heavy turnout," Travis County Clerk Dana DeBeauvoir said in a Facebook live.
Around midday, DeBeauvoir said Travis County residents were casting around 6,000 votes an hour, and she estimated a turnout of around 85% of registered voters.
"I think that's a conservative guess," she said.
This election has already been a record-setting one here in Austin.
More people voted early in Travis County this election than in the entire 2016 election.
As of Friday, the last day of early voting, 553,290 residents had cast their ballots. The bulk of those—nearly 90%—voted in person. The remainder voted by mail or limited ballot, which is available to those in the process of moving.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott extended the early voting period by six days this election due to the coronavirus pandemic.
In comparison, only 477,588 people voted in Travis County during the 2016 race, including Election Day turnout.
Travis County also set a new registration record this year, with 97% of eligible voters registered to do so, according to Travis County Tax Assessor-Collector and Voter Registrar Bruce Elfant.
The last time Travis County saw more than 70% of registered voter turnout was in 1988, according to the Texas Secretary of State's office, when Republican George H.W. Bush ran against Democrat Michael Dukakis.
Election Day logistics
Polls opened at 7 a.m. and close at 7 p.m. Anyone who is in line at 7 p.m. will be able to vote in person.
There are 178 Election Day polling places in Travis County, and all but a handful were reporting wait times of fewer than 20 minutes around 6:30 p.m. Residents can find polling place wait times here.
"Most of the voters out there are wearing masks and they're socially distancing," DeBeauvoir said, adding that many of this year's Election Day polling places were chosen because they allow for ample room between voters and booths.
Austin-Travis County Interim Health Authority Dr. Mark Escott encouraged residents to get out to vote this Election Day, adding that Austin Public Health has worked closely with local election officials to ensure safety amid the pandemic. He also asked Austinites to avoid in-person watch parties, given the risk of transmission.
Travis County residents who still need to deposit their mail-in ballots may do so in-person at 5501 Airport Blvd. Voters may only hand deliver their own carrier envelope, must present an acceptable form of identification and will be asked to sign a signature roster.
There is a hard cutoff at 7 p.m. Those waiting in line will not be able to deposit their ballots, DeBeauvoir said Tuesday.
Protests?
City officials are also anticipating election-related protests and encouraging residents to be mindful, given the pandemic and the likelihood that the results of the presidential race may be delayed or otherwise contested.
"While it's possible that we might know outright who has won in each race by tonight, we could also potentially end the night with an unclear winner in the Presidential race," Austin Mayor Steve Adler said in a statement. "Stay patient, and listen to trusted sources for election information."
Many downtown Austin businesses have boarded up their doors and windows in anticipation of mass gatherings, mirroring trends in other major U.S. cities.
"Regardless of today's outcome, I hope everyone remembers that we are all Austinites and we show our love for this city by showing love and respect for one another," Austin City Manager Spencer Cronk said in a statement.
Local activists and four members of City Council have raised concerns about the Austin Police Department's ability to maintain safety, given the serious injuries officers inflicted at Black Lives Matter protests earlier this year and recent reports that officers have tolerated or even fraternized with white supremacist groups.
Most recently, critics of Adler gathered on Sunday for a drive-thru protest and parade in support of recalling the mayor and "backing the blue," a pro-police movement. A group of APD officers posed in photos with the protesters, some of whom displayed white supremacist hand signals, in front of City Hall.
"We want to be absolutely clear what the expectations are for a response to any peaceful protests this November," Mayor Pro Tem Delia Garza said in a statement last week. "And we want Chief Manley to help assure Austinites that we will not see a repeat of the violent tactics APD used against peaceful demonstrators this spring."
Escott encouraged Austinites to protest safely, if they so choose.
"While we do not discourage individuals from exercising any of their protected constitutional rights, including the right to assembly, we implore our community members to think of the safety of those who surround them and to social distance, wear a mask, and wash your hands often," he said in a statement.
This story has been updated to include local voter turnout as of 5 p.m. on Election Day.
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Bruce McCandless II's untethered spacewalk made history in 1984. The red stripes above his knees were the only way that NASA could determine which astronaut was Bruce and which was his fellow spacewalker, Bob Stewart. (NASA)
'Wonders All Around' is a new book by Austinite Bruce McCandless III about his dad, the astronaut Bruce McCandless II. (Bruce McCandless III)
I met McCandless III, who lives in Austin with his wife Pati, for a coffee a few months ago, thanks to the introduction from a mutual friend. As we talked about losing our dads, being writers and parents and living in Austin while still dealing with COVID, his dad's famous flight didn't come up, but the process of writing such an epic biography of a complex, only recently passed man was something worth unpacking over coffee.
I hadn't read the book yet, but over the next few weeks, I got to know the McCandless family in such a sweet way that I wanted to write a little about the book here to perhaps inspire you to seek out a copy of "Wonders All Around."
As much as this is a book about space, it's also a book about grief. And persistence. And stoicism. And masculinity and maternality.
The elder McCandless died in 2017, just a few years after losing his wife, Bernice, to cancer.
This passing of the torch from father to son left the younger McCandless inspired to take on this decades-long narrative. McCandless III sets the tone for the book with a memory of the family sitting around the dinner table at their home outside Johnson Space Center near Houston in the mid 1970s, when his dad, who joined NASA in 1966 at the age of 28, wasn't sure he'd ever actually make it to space.
"Our dinners were somber affairs. We ate around a rectangular Formica table in the breakfast nook. Tracy and I sat on benches padded with orange vinyl cushions. Mom and Dad occupied faux-Spanish style chairs with green felt upholstery. Despite the informal, Howard Johnson's-at-the-airport feel of the furnishings, there was a tension in the air that set in right around the time the frozen string beans started steaming. I had the feeling that my sister and I had forgotten to do something important, though I couldn't figure out what it was, or that judgment had been rendered on us and we'd been found guilty of … something — again, it was unclear what. Horseplay was prohibited. The TV and all sources of music or other frivolity were turned off, and singing was strictly forbidden. The only sound came from the aquarium pump. My father had a 100-gallon tank along the wall behind his chair. Sometimes the big plecostomus would attach itself by its mouth to the glass facing us, and I imagined it sucking all the oxygen out of the room."
Imagining what it must have been like to require oxygen to survive, not in outer space but in the living room with your family, sets up the story of the McCandless ancestors, including a guy who was killed by Wild Bill Hickok and the author's grandfather, who was an admiral in the U.S. Navy.
No pressure, Bruce.
It was fascinating to read about the 18 years that Bruce McCandless II worked for NASA before he finally had his first flight, which debuted the Manned Maneuvering Unit, a jet-fueled backpack that he and Ed Whitsett Jr. spent so many years developing. (That's the joystick-controlled machine he's wearing in that mind-bending poster that hung on millions of Americans' walls over the following decade.)
The author McCandless has the unenviable task of trying to put into words what that flight must have felt like. His dad flew 150 feet away from the shuttle Challenger, which would, of course, break into a million little pieces just a few years later.
When President Reagan called the shuttle to congratulate the astronauts that day in 1984, the command center set up a demonstration space walk to give the president a live view of McCandless through the shuttle window.
Bruce McCandless II, trains with Kathy Sullivan, right, in preparation to launch the Hubble Space Telescope. (NASA)
The only problem was, there wasn't much fuel left. McCandless went out anyway, trying to stay within 10-15 feet of the spacecraft. He got into position and turned off the unit to preserve propellant. After the president said a few words and the video switched off, McCandless turned on the unit and "looked for the closest piece of the orbiter, pointed at it, put the hand controller in +X (and) got a sort of sighing noise as it accelerated in that direction." He ran out of fuel just as he grabbed onto a rail on the orbiter. Hand over hand, he brought himself back to the donning station.
It's that kind of suspense that made this book so thrilling to read.
There's space tension like when McCandless is operating as CAPCOM, the only person talking to Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin while they are walking on the surface of the moon, and his commander wants him to break protocol and call them back early, even though there are no signs of distress.
The book is also so touching. I cried while reading about the declining health of Bernice, who survived so many astronaut wife struggles over the years and at the end of her life remained a loving partner and mother.
Bruce McCandless was a Navy pilot who was picked to join NASA in 1966. His first space flight wasn't until 1984. (NASA)
It's easy to forget that McCandless II had an entirely other memorable historic moment—launching the Hubble Space Telescope in 1990—and this one seems to have struck an even deeper chord with McCandless III.
The Hubble launch was McCandless' second and final flight. He was 52 and had worked at NASA for 24 years.
McCandless II spends the last chapters of the book making a compelling case that his dad's work to fix and update the Hubble are among the greatest achievements to science. He continued to work on Hubble for another two decades after retiring from NASA through his work at Lockheed Martin.
Bruce McCandless, left, and the flight crew that launched the Hubble Space Telescope in 1990. He was 52 years old. (NASA)
He was the "nuts, bolts, screws, and wires guy," the auto mechanic rather than the scientist, who kept the telescope going 340 miles above Earth for more than twice its life expectancy. The Hubble has been cited in more than 18,000 scientific papers and has revealed countless secrets and unsolved mysteries from around the universe and beyond.
"The size, shape, and sheer spectral weirdness of the images boggle the imagination and make prophets and dreamers of us all," McCandless writes toward the end of "Wonders All Around. "Some of us pay therapists to tell us we're important and unique. Then we check in with Hubble so the satellite can inform us just how galactically marginal we all are. The truth is somewhere in the middle."
What a beautiful reminder.
