Harris County Early Voting Surges to 346,797, Tops 2024 Turnout

Unofficial totals from the Harris County clerk’s office show 346,797 in-person and mail-in ballots were cast during the Feb. 17-27 early voting window for the March 3, 2026 primary, a figure reported publicly on March 2, 2026 and described by Community Impact as "nearly 347K" and as surpassing 2024 early turnout.

The party breakdown provided to media and repeated by KTRK/ABC13 lists Democrats at 220,284 early ballots and Republicans at 126,513 early ballots, numbers the clerk’s office supplied to reporters. KTRK reporter Mo Haider and Yahoo republishing KTRK copy carried those figures and the clerk’s office attribution.

University of Houston political science professor Nancy Sims, quoted by KTRK, pointed to contested races as the main driver: "On the Democratic side, you've got a very heated campaign between qualified candidates who think they may be the best one to face the Republican to give Texas a victory in the Senate. Right. So I personally think that's one of the biggest drivers of turnout because both sides of the aisle have very competitive races there." KTRK also identified U.S. Senator, county judge, and several U.S. House seats on the March primary ballot as likely contributors to elevated participation.

Sims also highlighted partisan differences in early-vote behavior and statewide context: "I'm not as surprised at the difference, although it is a pretty striking increase from previous years and certainly on the Democratic side, but even also higher on the Republican side." She added, "The Republican Party has been encouraging people to vote on Election Day instead of voting earlier by mail. So it has to do with some of their election security issues that they've been pushing out to their party." On statewide early-vote rates she noted, "At the statewide combined average of both party primaries, it's higher than normal, but it's still a pretty low percentage. It's still under 20%."

The Harris County Elections Department posted on its official Facebook page on Feb. 18 at 8:17 AM that "The first day of in-person Early Voting for the 2026 Primary Elections recorded significantly higher turnout than the first day of Early Voting in the most recent midterm and presidential primaries for both parties. #Primaries2026 #Harrisvotes #harriscountyelections." A public comment captured in that post by Nelson Armstrong Jr. read, "These are really good numbers. The last time we saw numbers like this, we got great outcomes in Harris County and across the United States. Looking for even greater outcomes this cycle."

An original report provided to this newsroom included the phrase "roughly 64% higher than early voting in t" before the text was truncated. Community Impact explicitly framed the 346,797 total as surpassing 2024 early-vote turnout, but KTRK and Community Impact did not publish a completed 64 percent calculation in their excerpts. The early total remains labeled "unofficial" in multiple reports and should be checked against county historical totals and subsequent clerk’s office updates for confirmation of any percentage increase.

Primary Election Day is March 3, 2026; final turnout figures will depend on Election Day votes and the Harris County clerk’s office certification process.