Voting News

Early voting totals and more info on Election Day '24 in Dallas

Native Vote SA Early Voting Rall election

November 5 is the big election.

Courtesy photo

Tuesday November 5 is election day, which means it's time to vote. The Presidential race between Democratic candidate Kamala Harris and Republican candidate Donald Trump is the biggest contest. Yahoo says that the outcome will be determined by seven swing states, in order of Electoral College votes: Pennsylvania (19), Georgia (16), North Carolina (16), Michigan (15), Arizona (11), Wisconsin (10), and Nevada (6).

In addition to president, Texans can cast their ballots for many Texas officials running for office at federal, state, and local levels. More info can be found in this voting guide, and there is also information on three propositions before Dallas voters — S, T, and U — here.

Polls are open from 7 am-7 pm.

This roundup gathers information on public transportation, early voting, and some pro-voting efforts by local businesses.

Public transportation is free
Transportation agencies in both Dallas and Fort Worth are offering free rides as follows:

Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) is providing free transportation to polling locations within the DART Service Area on Tuesday, November 5. Voters should show their voter registration card or government ID and can ride at no cost on all DART buses, trains, GoLink, the Dallas Streetcar, Paratransit Services, and the TRE between EBJ Union and CentrePort/DFW Airport stations.

Trinity Metro will offer free rides for voting on all local services. Customers who are riding to or from the polls are eligible for free rides on Trinity Metro buses, Trinity Metro On-Demand rideshare services (including paratransit) and Trinity Metro TEXRail. Free rides also include Trinity Railway Express stations in Tarrant County, including CentrePort. To obtain a free ride, customers should notify their driver or train conductor that they are traveling to or from a voting location.

GoLink riders can use promo code VOTEPRES at checkout for a complimentary Adult Local Day Pass in the DART GoPass app.

How to find a voting location
The State of Texas organizes election information and voting locations by county. To find voting locations, click the link for your county:

Collin County Election Information (Plano, Richardson, Carrollton)
Dallas County (Addison, Carrollton, Cockrell Hill, Dallas, Farmers Branch, Garland, Glenn Heights, Highland Park, Irving, Rowlett, University Park)
Denton County (Carrollton)
Ellis County (Glenn Heights)
Rockwall County (Rowlett)

Early voting numbers
According to an analysis by the Texas Tribune, more than 9 million Texans voted in person during the two weeks of early voting or returned their absentee ballots by November 1 — representing nearly half of all registered voters, or 48.6 percent. (The total number of voters in Texas is 18.6 million.) It's down from 2020, but in 2020, the early voting period was extended to three weeks.

There was also a decline in mail-in voting: In 2020, 937,870 Texans voted by mail, but in 2024, 347,652 voted by mail. However, as the Tribune notes, there was a greater emphasis on mail-in ballots in 2020. Mail-in ballots can still be accepted until November 6.

Voting time off
Half Price Books is closing its stores (120 locations in 19 states) early on election day to give employees time to vote. The brand has a longstanding history of advocating for First Amendment Rights, and want to ensure that employees don't experience any obstacles in voting.

Reunion Tower
Reunion Tower will mark Election Day with two displays that will toggle back and forth:

"Vote" for Election Day
U.S. Flag for Election Day

The displays are one in a series of holiday-themed light shows that the little ball will display throughout November. (Continuing from October, the building will continue its support of the fall bird migration which lasts until November 17 by adjusting its light shows to protect migrating birds, reducing brightness from sunset to 11 pm, and then going dark completely after 11 pm.

Colin Allred watch party
On November 5, Congressman Colin Allred, who is running for U.S. Senate, will host an Election Night watch party at the Lonhorn Ballroom in his hometown Dallas. Allred earned endorsements from five major newspapers in Texas in five cities: Austin-American Statesman, Dallas Morning News, Houston Chronicle, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, and the San Antonio Express-News — all the same five cities where CultureMap has bureaus, yay.

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happy go lucky plano

Dallas neighbor dazzles on new list of happiest cities in America

Photo courtesy of Visit Plano

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A new happiness study has ranked Plano one of the happiest cities in America this year, and it once again landed on top as the happiest city in Texas.

Plano has moved up on the list and ranks as the 16th happiest U.S. city in 2026. Last year, it was 17th.

WalletHub determined the happiest cities in America based on 29 relevant metrics based on "positive-psychology research" across three main categories: emotional and physical wellbeing, income and employment, and community and environment. As with most WalletHub studies, it compared the 182 most populous U.S. cities.

Fremont, California claimed the top spot as the happiest city nationwide for another year. Bismark, North Dakota and Scottsdale, Arizona, respectfully, rounded out the top three.

Here's how WalletHub ranked Plano across the three key dimensions:

No. 15 – Emotional and physical wellbeing
No. 22 – Community and environment
No. 72 – Income and employment

Plano and its residents have continued improving their city year after year, whether its through opening new bakeries and restaurants, inviting fun pop-ups for locals, or having a strong job market.

Plano's happiness far outshines the rest of North Texas; according to WalletHub, Irving is the 70th happiest city in the country, the third-happiest in Texas, and the second-happiest city in the Dallas-Fort Worth metro. Garland ranked farther behind as No. 92 nationally, and more DFW cities ranked even lower: Grand Prairie (No. 106), Dallas (No. 111), Fort Worth (No. 113), and Arlington (No. 119).

The report additionally found that Dallasites spend the third-most amount of time at work in the nation. The city ranked No. 180 in the national analysis of U.S. cities with the "fewest work hours."

WalletHub also emphasized that money doesn't buy happiness — after a certain point.

"For decades, researchers have explored the science of happiness and identified several core factors, including mental well-being, physical health, strong social ties, job satisfaction, and financial stability," the report said. "Still, income has its limits — studies show that earning more than $75,000 a year does not lead to greater happiness."

Six-figure earners in Plano aren't necessarily as happy as those who don't make as much, as a separate financial study from SmartAsset revealed these big earners are only taking home about $72,653 after taxes and adjusted for the cost of living.

This is how other Texas cities ranked in the report:

No. 39 – Austin
No. 128 – Houston
No. 135 – Lubbock
No. 137 – El Paso
No. 140 – Laredo
No. 143 – Amarillo
No. 150 – Brownsville
No. 154 – San Antonio
No. 155 – Corpus Christi

wallethub plano reports