Texas Early Voting Closes at 6,897,400 Ballots — and the Biggest Group Is Voters With No Primary History at All
The final count is about 1.4 million ballots above 2022, and the electorate changed shape: voters with no recent primary history rose nine points to 36.9 percent, passing the Republican-primary-only share, which fell to 30.9 percent.
Early voting in Texas is over, and the final snapshot is a record with a twist. Theo Elections tracked 6,897,400 early ballots statewide by the close of voting on Friday, October 30 — about 1.4 million more than the 5,497,479 early votes it recorded in the 2022 general election, an increase of roughly 25 percent. The Texas Secretary of State cautions that early-voting totals are unofficial and can change as counties submit updates or corrections.
The composition of that electorate changed as much as its size. Voters with no recent Democratic or Republican primary history made up 36.9 percent of the 2026 early electorate — about 2.55 million people, and now the largest single group. Four years ago that category stood at 27.9 percent. Over the same span, 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.
Two cautions belong with the numbers. Texas does not register voters by political party, and a voter's primary history is not a record of how that voter cast a general-election ballot — the no-primary-history group includes general-election-only voters, newer voters and infrequent voters, and the data alone cannot say why the group grew. What it does say is that the 2026 early electorate is not simply a larger copy of 2022's.
What remains is Election Day itself. Polls are open statewide on Tuesday, November 3, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., and in Travis County any of the county's 201 vote centers will take any county voter's ballot — the guide this station published overnight (SQ-20261031-004) carries the details.
