AUSTIN — A record number of Texans are registered to vote in the March 1 primary election, with early voting starting Monday.
As of January, more than 17.1 million people were registered to vote statewide, according to the latest figures from the secretary of state’s office. Texas topped 17 million registered voters in November, adding nearly 2 million voters over four years.
Early voting runs from Feb. 14 through Feb. 25 for the Republican and Democratic primaries.
Voters will choose each party’s candidate for district-level elections and seven statewide races — including governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general. All U.S. House seats also are up for election. Any primary runoffs would be decided May 24.
This will be the first election held using the state’s new GOP-drawn political maps, which are being challenged in court.
The 2022 midterm elections will reshape the Texas Legislature and the state’s congressional delegation while testing the political power of Republican statewide leaders.
Here’s a look at primary and general election turnout in Texas over the past two decades.
In 2018, the last midterm election year, 10% of the 15.2 million Texans registered to vote at the time turned out for the Republican primary. The Democratic primary saw 7% turnout among those registered. In the general election that year, 53% of registered voters cast ballots.
Turnout and registration swelled ahead of the 2020 presidential election, when 12% of registered voters turned out in the GOP primary and 13% in the Democratic primary. Texas surpassed 16 million registered voters that cycle.
In the November 2020 election, 67% of registered voters turned out — a seven-point jump from the previous presidential contest in 2016. Turnout in the 2016 Republican and Democratic primaries was 20% and 10%, respectively.
About 10% of registered voters cast ballots in the GOP primary in 2014, another midterm election year. That’s compared with 4% in the Democratic primary. In the general election, 34% of registered voters turned out.
Texans do not register to vote by party. They simply register and can choose which primary to vote in. But they can only vote in a runoff of the party primary they chose to vote in; they cannot cross over and vote in a different party’s runoff.
