HOUSTON, Texas — Voters in Houston and the rest of Harris County, Texas, have turned the first week of early voting into a record run, with more than 500,000 ballots cast since polls opened Monday, roughly one of every five registered voters in the county.
County figures going back to 1998 show no midterm that started faster. Opening day alone drew more than 104,000 in-person voters, a first-day midterm high and a bigger crowd than any single early voting day in 2018 or 2022. Each day after that also topped the matching day in both earlier midterms.
Growth explains part of it, since the voter rolls have grown by roughly 400,000 names compared with 2018, but turnout is also running ahead of past midterms as a share of all voters.
Some of the biggest gains are in Black neighborhoods. Through the first four days, about 5,000 people had voted at the Acres Homes site, according to the Harris County Clerk’s office, compared with about 2,400 there in the 2022 midterm. Turnout has also roughly doubled in Sunnyside and the Tidwell area. Traci A. Gibson, who chairs the county Democratic Party, credited canvassing, phone banks and neighborhood groups offering rides to the polls.
The busiest site this year is the Richard and Meg Weekley Community Center in Cypress, which has overtaken the longtime leader, the West Gray Multi-Service Center close to downtown. Sites in Kingwood and Jersey Village, plus an HCC campus along West Loop South, rank among the other high-traffic locations.
The ballot is crowded. Attorney General Ken Paxton, who ousted Sen. John Cornyn in the Republican runoff, is in a Senate race with Democrat James Talarico and Ted Brown, the Libertarian. Gov. Greg Abbott, chasing a fourth term, is opposed by Gina Hinojosa for the Democrats and Pat Dixon for the Libertarians. Locally, two former Houston City Council members, one Democrat and one Republican, are vying to succeed County Judge Lina Hidalgo, who is not running again.
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