More than a third of Wood County registered voters had already cast ballots by Monday, as the first week of the expanded early voting period ended for the Nov. 3 general election.

Gov. Greg Abbott backed up the start of early voting to Oct. 13, and Wood County jumped right in, with 1,970 votes cast the first day. The steady pace continued with 1,935 last Wednesday, 1,753 on Thursday and 1,711 on Friday.

With another 1,394 early votes cast on Monday, that brought the total to 9,113 early votes in person and another 1,734 votes cast by mail for a total of 10,844 votes cast, or 33.5 percent of the registered voters in the county.

Early voting continues through Friday, Oct. 30 at the elections office in Quitman, Methodist Ministries Center in Mineola, community center in Hawkins and The Depot in Winnsboro.

Early voting location hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the outlying locations. The elections office will have 8-5 hours as well as additional hours of 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Oct. 26-29 and 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 24.

The presidential election featuring Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Joe Biden heads the ballot and includes state and U.S. senators and representatives as well as local city council and school board elections which were delayed from May.

Wood County has no contested county races. Precinct Four will choose a constable by write-in vote, with Chase Glover the only declared write-in candidate.