Vincent Siewit just dropped off his vote at a polling place in Houston -- one of nine million people in Texas who have already voted, racing past the state's presidential election turnout from 2016. 

The 30-year-old voted in the historically conservative state, where polls this time around suggest Democratic candidate Joe Biden has a fighting chance of winning.

Larger than France and home to 29 million people, Texas is the second most populous state in the US after California but has voted republican in every presidential polls since 1980.

To the winner of the vast state go 38 electoral votes -- a large prize and a possibly decisive bloc for Biden if he were to gain it.

The number of registered voters in the state has risen 12 percent since 2016 -- more than 1.9 million additional people, many of them Latinos.

With the electorate changing and a high turnout over the last few days, Democrats are dreaming of a Biden win, a possible earthquake for US politics that would shake up the political map.

Queues were short at the polling station in the center of Houston on Friday -- the last day for early voting in the state.

Lily, 31, became a US citizen last year and had just voted for the first time in a US election when she spoke to AFP.  "The hate for President Trump drew me to the polls," she said.