Voters Across Houston Area, Texas Head to Polls for Primary Election
Adam Zuvanich/Houston Public Media
Two University of Houston employees leave the campus student center after voting in the primary election on Tuesday, March 3, 2026.
Voters across the Houston area and the state of Texas are heading to the polls Tuesday to pick the Democrats and Republicans who will appear on the ballot in November for the midterm election.
Election Day polling locations for the March primaries are open from 7 a.m.-7 p.m., when voters will weigh in on party-specific propositions and several key races. One of Texas’ U.S. Senate seats is on the ballot this year, and voters across the state also will pick their party nominees for governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, Texas Supreme Court justice seats and spots on the State Board of Education, among other statewide races.
RELATED: How to vote in the March 2026 primary election in the Houston area
More locally, voters also will choose their preferred candidates for the top elected offices in Harris, Fort Bend, Galveston and Montgomery counties. All 150 seats in the Texas House and 16 seats in the Texas Senate are on the ballot as well.
Seats in the U.S. House also are up for grabs, including in the 9th and 18th Congressional Districts in the Houston area. Many congressional districts across the region and the state had their boundaries redrawn last summer as part of a controversial mid-decade redistricting.
In Harris County, which includes Houston and is the most populous county in the state, there are nearly 290 polling locations open Tuesday. Voters registered in the county can cast their ballots at any of those voting centers.
As of 10 a.m. Tuesday, more than 35,000 people had voted in Harris County on Election Day, according to a social media post by the Harris County Clerk’s Office.
RELATED: Across Texas, early voters share what’s pushing them to the polls for the 2026 party primaries
Early voting turnout was up this year compared to the last midterm primary elections in 2022, especially among Democrats, who in November will try to win a statewide election for the first time in more than 30 years. More than 1.37 million Texans voted early in the Democratic primary, according to the Texas Secretary of State’s Office, which reported that another 1.18 million voters cast ballots in the Republican primary. Texas has nearly 18.66 million registered voters, meaning early voting turnout was about 13.7%.
Turnout was about 12.8% during early voting in Harris County, where there are more than 2.7 million registered voters. Nearly 347,000 ballots were cast in the county during early voting – more than 220,000 in the Democratic primary and nearly 127,000 in the GOP primary.
In contested primary races in which no candidate receives more than 50% of the vote, runoff elections between the top two candidates will be held May 26.
METRO offering free rides to and from polls
Houston voters venturing out to the polls can take advantage of free rides from the Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County (METRO).
The region’s public transit agency, as it typically does on Election Day and during early voting, is offering free round-trip rides to voters on Tuesday. The promotion applies to METRO’s bus, light rail and paratransit services, along with its on-demand and electric shuttle rideshare services. The rideshare services are available only in specific communities.
METRO says customers can utilize the free rides by showing their voter identification to fare collectors.
