Harris County had surpassed its midterm early-voting record before polls opened Thursday, with more than 862,000 ballots cast. That was already above the 855,711 ballots cast during the entire early-voting period in 2018. A forecast reported by the Houston Chronicle put the county on track to reach 1 million ballots by the close of early voting Friday; that milestone was a prediction, not a confirmed total.
Harris County Clerk Teneshia Hudspeth said the numbers reflect a historic moment for local voters. “Harris County voters are making history,” Hudspeth said, according to the Houston Chronicle, which reported that she predicted 1 million voters would have cast ballots in the county by the end of early voting Friday. The pace has been building since the opening days of the cycle: Harris County set a record for first-day early-voting turnout when more than 127,000 people voted, according to the Texas Tribune.
That Oct. 19 total broke down to 104,659 in-person check-ins and 24,794 mail ballots received, for 129,453 total early voters, per the station's report on county figures. The county kept piling on records from there — a third straight early-voting record fell on Wednesday, with in-person turnout reaching 93,417, the highest third-day total for any Harris County midterm in records dating back to 1998, according to the same account. By the fourth day, 384,304 people had voted in person, and the total climbed to 415,725 once 31,421 returned mail ballots were counted.
How This Stacks Up Against 2018
Every one of those daily marks blew past the county's 2018 benchmarks. The previous record for first-day early voting was 63,188 ballots, also set in 2018, according to Houston Public Media. The third-day in-person record had stood at 62,476, and the fourth-day in-person record was 58,938, both from 2018. For comparison, Harris County saw nearly 1.2 million early votes during the 2024 presidential election, and presidential races typically draw far more voters than midterms do, per the Houston Chronicle's reporting.
Comparing Midterm Turnout
The reported Harris County totals provide some raw-count context: the county recorded 855,711 early-voting ballots in 2018, while Community Impact previously reported 750,349 early voters in 2022. The current count had exceeded 862,000 before Thursday morning, with a one-million total by Friday’s close still a forecast. The reporting cited here does not provide a comparable 2014 total or turnout as a share of registered voters for each of those elections, so these figures do not establish how participation rates compare across all four midterms. The electorate has also grown: Harris County had 2.7 million registered voters ahead of the Nov. 3 midterm, compared with 2.5 million in 2022, according to the Houston Defender Network. That larger registered-voter count is relevant context for raw ballot totals, but it does not explain what caused the turnout surge.
Voting-site totals show that the increase was not limited to one part of the county. Through the first 10 days, the Richard and Meg Weekley Community Center in Cypress had recorded more than 29,000 ballots, 75% above the same period in 2022, according to the Houston Chronicle. The Metropolitan Multiservice Center followed with just over 28,000 ballots, up 60% from 2022.
Turnout Surges in Acres Homes, Sunnyside and Beyond
The Houston Chronicle’s site-level figures also show steep increases at several other locations. Through the first 10 days, turnout at the Acres Homes Multiservice Center and Sunnyside Health and Multi Service Center was each more than 80% above the same period in 2024. At the Northeast Multiservice Center and Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church, the increase was more than 150%.
Those same Acres Homes, Sunnyside and Tidwell-area precincts had already doubled their turnout from the 2022 midterm, and countywide early voting was up more than 50% from four years earlier, according to the Houston Chronicle's reporting. Statewide, the surge was broader still — nearly 4.5 million Texans cast ballots in the first seven days of early voting, with 23.4% of registered voters statewide casting a ballot by Oct. 25, compared with 24.3% at the same point in 2018, per the Texas Tribune.
What the Numbers Do — and Don't — Tell Us
Record turnout by itself does not identify which party may benefit. State Sen. Paul Bettencourt said voters with a history of participating in Democratic primaries were turning out in greater numbers than those with Republican primary histories, but characterized voters without a clear primary history as the key uncertainty, according to the Houston Chronicle.
Statewide figures echo that uncertainty. Voters with previous Democratic primary participation accounted for 35% of ballots cast in the first seven days, just ahead of 33% for Republican primary voters, the Texas Tribune reported. More than 37% of early voters statewide had no previous primary voting history at all, the Chronicle noted, and Texas doesn't register voters by party, so the raw totals can't show a partisan breakdown on their own, according to KERA.
Candidates Make Their Final Pushes
The turnout surge comes as the marquee statewide race — Republican Ken Paxton against Democrat James Talarico for U.S. Senate — heads into its final stretch. Paxton is scheduled to hold a rally in Houston Friday at noon, while Talarico and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Gina Hinojosa plan to attend a get-out-the-vote rally in Houston Saturday at 2 p.m., per the Houston Chronicle. Gov. Greg Abbott campaigned in Montgomery County Wednesday and is expected to return to Houston Monday for a final push before Election Day.
The turnout surge comes as the marquee statewide race — Republican Ken Paxton against Democrat James Talarico for U.S. Senate — heads into its final stretch. Paxton is scheduled to hold a rally in Houston Friday at noon, while Talarico and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Gina Hinojosa plan to attend a get-out-the-vote rally in Houston Saturday at 2 p.m., per the Houston Chronicle. Gov. Greg Abbott campaigned in Montgomery County Wednesday and is expected to return to Houston Monday for a final push before Election Day. Analysts caution that early-turnout figures do not guarantee an outcome, the Texas Tribune reported. More than 862,000 ballots had been cast before Thursday morning; the forecast that the county would pass 1 million by Friday’s close was not a final count.
