Early Voting in the March 5 Texas Primary Election Begins Tuesday

posted on 2.12.2024

Early voting in the March 5 GOP and Democratic Party primary elections begins early next week on Feb. 20 and closes on Friday, March 1.

The federal President’s Day holiday prevents what would be the first day of early voting next Monday.

More than 200 federal and state offices are up for election in 2024 as well as a host of elected offices in all of Texas’ 254 counties.

Primary elections in Texas are political party elections conducted using county voting machines and election staff. 

The Nov. 5 general election is conducted entirely by county election staff.

The top federal offices up in the 2024 election year are president and the U.S. Senate seat held by two-term U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Houston.

All 38 Texas congressional seats are up for election including a number of open seats created by the incumbent’s retirement at the end of the year, though only 18 incumbents have primary challengers.

Fifteen of the 31 members of the Texas Senate are up for election as are all 150 seats in the Texas House of Representatives.

There is one seat on the Texas Railroad Commission up for election currently held by Comm. Christi Craddick, R- Austin.

Seven seats are up for election on the State Board of Education and three seats each are up for election on the Texas Supreme Court and Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.

TAB Member Station Resources for the Election Year

TAB has created a special page in the Members-Only portion of the TAB website to provide a full suite of resources to assist stations with the FCC’s political broadcast obligations. 

It’s called the TAB Political Toolkit and you can access it here.   

The TAB Political Toolkit includes:

• A recording of TAB’s January FCC Political Broadcast Rules webinar featuring attorney Scott Flick of TAB’s FCC legal counsel Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman
• TAB’s legal guide to the FCC’s Political Broadcast Rules
• TAB’s Political Forms
• TAB’s 2024 Political Dates and Offices Up for Election Primer 

If you have not used the Members section of the TAB website before, you will be prompted to set up your account to access these resources.

Additionally, the TAB legal hotline is available for Texas broadcasters’ routine questions on compliance with the FCC’s political broadcast regulations.

Questions? Contact TAB’s Michael Schneider or call (512) 322-9944. 

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