How Many Registered Voters Texas

Texas 2022 Elections

Nearly eighteen% of registered Texas voters cast 2022 primary ballots

Texas has a history of a dismal turnout charge per unit in primary elections. This year'southward turnout was higher than the last half dozen midterm primaries. Still, less than 1 in 5 registered voters participated.

February. xiv, 2022 Updated: March 24, 2022

2022 primary election turnout — Credit: Illustration by Emily Albracht

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Well-nigh 18% of registered voters in Texas cast a ballot in the 2022 primary, with 55% voting early and 45% voting on ballot 24-hour interval. At least 18,000 mail-in votes were rejected in the counties with the about registered voters, most for failing to meet the new GOP voting constabulary'due south ID requirements. Mail-in ballots that were counted made upwardly 7% of the early vote. This is a decline from 2020, when mail-in ballots comprised x% of the early vote.

Voters chose party nominees for statewide seats, including governor, and district-based congressional and legislative seats. Early on voting was from Feb. xiv to Feb. 25, and election solar day was March ane.

Historically, voter participation in midterm primary elections is dismal in Texas, with less than a quarter of registered voters casting ballots nigh years. This means that a vast majority of registered voters don't participate. These figures also do not business relationship for the eligible voters in the land that have non registered.

Overall, 176 counties out of 254 surpassed their primary turnouts in 2018. Most of these were smaller, Republican-leaning counties, and turnout was largely driven by participation in the GOP primary.

Voter enthusiasm can exist a significant driver in turnout rates. Voters are besides more inclined to cast their ballots when a race is more competitive. In primary elections, incumbents tin can make an election less competitive.

In the counties habitation to Texas' about populous cities, Harris, Bexar, Dallas and Travis, turnout was around fifteen% of the nearly 6 million registered voters. The state's fast-changing suburbs, which include counties that have flipped bluish in recent years, saw 17% of their 3.5 million registered voters cast ballots in this primary.

Turnout in border counties was slightly lower at effectually 14%, which is about the same as the 2018 chief. Republican primary turnout increased in counties forth the edge compared with in 2018 — four.6% versus 2.8% — though turnout in this yr's Democratic main was still college at 9.5%.

In the lower Rio Grande Valley, which comprises Starr, Hidalgo, Willacy and Cameron counties, the Republican primary turnout was 4% compared with 1.9% in 2018. Democratic primary participation was still college at ix.2%.

S Texas saw competitive Republican races and heavy GOP campaigning this year every bit part of the GOP'due south attempt to flip an open up seat. Counties in South Texas, which are typically Democratic strongholds, were also redrawn into more competitive districts. Congressional District 15, which includes Hidalgo County, was redrawn to include more people who voted for one-time President Donald Trump. Zapata County, which flipped scarlet in the 2020 full general election, was redrawn into Texas House Commune 31, which would take favored Trump by 25 per centum points in the 2020 election. Starr County, where Joe Biden won by just 5 percentage points, is besides in HD-31.

The party that draws more than voters in Texas' open primaries is not a reliable indicator for who will win the general election in November.

"Turnout in the state for chief elections remains perpetually low. Merely this is true regardless of ballot twelvemonth," said Joshua Blank, the research manager of the Texas Politics Project. "It's not representative or indicative of what's going to happen in the coming election cycle."

In the 2020 presidential primary, more Democrats cast ballots than Republicans. Only in November, Donald Trump won by v.six percent points in Texas.

Chief voters tend to exist more engaged in politics compared with the residuum of the electorate, whether that involves news consumption or engagement with civic organizations, according to Blank.

Republican primary voters skew white and more conservative than the overall political party, and Democratic primary voters skew whiter, more liberal and more suburban than the overall party, Blank added.

This year, Texans voted nether new laws that further restrict the state'due south voting procedure and narrow local control of elections. Counties had to follow new early voting regulations. Harris Canton offered 24-hour voting for one day during the 2020 general election. The new police bans such measures, restricting early voting hours to 6 a.m. to x p.chiliad.

Republicans enacted a handful of voting measures including new ID requirements and rules for voter assistance. Election administrators said they had to render thousands of vote-by-mail applications and mail service-in ballots and request corrections due to new identification requirements.

New rules for voting by mail service

You must provide an ID number

The Texas Legislature last year created new identification requirements for voting by postal service that require voters to provide their driver's license or state ID number or, if they oasis't been assigned those, the last four digits of their Social Security number. If they don't accept either, voters tin can too indicate they accept non been issued that identification.
This is required both when applying for a ballot and when you render it

On an awarding for a post-in election, the ID field is nearly the top of the grade. If you're returning a completed election, y'all'll discover the ID field nether the flap of the carrier envelope your county sent y'all with your election.
The deadline for counties to receive applications is February. eighteen. Completed ballots must be postmarked by 7 p.m. on March 1. They can as well be delivered in person on election day.
Your ID number must match your voter registration tape

It's unlikely that voters know which number is attached to their voter registration record. While the new rules only require you to provide i ID number, voters can provide both a commuter's license number and the terminal four digits of your Social Security number to avoid problems.
Counties must accept applications with both numbers, as long as at least ane matches what they have on file.
You can make corrections if you forget to include information technology just the window is narrowing

For applications: You may be able to correct the issue by signing in to the state's new online ballot tracker using both your driver's license number and partial Social Security number. If y'all're unable to correct the issue online, yous may have to transport in a new application.
For ballots: The procedure for correcting an ID event depends on when your county receives your ballot. If there'south enough time before the deadline, officials will send back your carrier envelope with instructions on how to submit the missing ID information.

Closer to ballot day, officials volition instead try to notify y'all about the event by phone or email. You can and then go to the canton's elections office in person, utilise the election tracker to verify the missing information, or cancel your postal service-in election and vote in person.

Texas lawmakers redrew maps for the state House and Senate, congressional delegation and State Board of Education, locking in GOP power for the side by side decade. The maps dilute the voting powers of Texans of color — even though new census data shows people of color are driving population growth.

Redistricting is expected to result in less competitive races between Republicans and Democrats in November. New maps have resulted in more uncontested primary races, meaning only i major political party has a candidate.

In roughly i-third of all political seats up for election in Texas this year, primaries were the only election because one major party didn't field a candidate. Out of 150 Texas House seats, there were no Democratic candidates for 41 seats and no Republican candidates for 27 seats. In the 31-seat Texas Senate, eight seats did not accept Democratic candidates and three did not have Republican candidates. For the U.South. House, there were no Democratic candidates in 6 out of 38 seats.

Alexa Ura and José Luis Martínez contributed to this story.

Disclosure: The Texas secretary of land has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in office past donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

Correction, March 4, 2022: An before version of a nautical chart in this story showing where voters live was incorrectly labeled 2020 primary. The nautical chart shows voter participation in the 2022 principal.

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