Texas Early Voting Final Total: Nearly 6.9 Million Ballots, and the Biggest Group Had No Recent Primary History
Early voting closed Friday with about 1.4 million more Texas ballots than in 2022 - and the electorate that cast them looks different, led by voters with no recent primary history at all.
HOUSTON - Texas closed its two weeks of early voting on Friday with nearly 6.9 million ballots cast, according to Theo Elections' end-of-early-voting count: 6,897,400 early ballots statewide, against 5,497,479 recorded in the 2022 general election. That is roughly 1.4 million more early ballots, an increase of about 25 percent, before a single Election Day vote is cast.
The composition of that electorate changed as much as its size. Voters with no recent primary history made up 36.9 percent of the 2026 early electorate - about 2.55 million people - up nine points from 27.9 percent in 2022, and now the largest single group. The Republican-primary-only share fell from 39.0 percent to 30.9 percent, while the Democratic-primary-only share barely moved, from 30.0 percent to 29.6 percent.
The trackers do not agree to the ballot, and the difference is worth stating plainly: On Point Politics' county-compiled snapshot put the Texas total at 6,857,566 as of October 30 - 255,521 by mail and 6,602,045 in person. The Texas Secretary of State cautions that early-voting totals are unofficial and can change as counties submit updates or corrections, so every figure in this file is a snapshot, not a certified final.
What the numbers cannot say is who anyone voted for. Texas does not register voters by party, primary history is not a vote choice, and the ballot is secret; a voter with no recent primary history may hold strong preferences, and a habitual primary voter may cross over in November. Election Day is Tuesday, November 3, with polls open statewide from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. - the last piece of a midterm electorate that is already larger, and harder to classify, than the one Texas saw four years ago.
