Original reporting provided by Alex Samuels, reporter at The Texas Tribune. Supplemental reporting provided by R. Hans Miller, reporter at Community Impact Newspaper. With less than a month until the March 6 primary elections, races across the ballot are starting to heat up. This year, Texas has the earliest primaries in the country. Fort Bend County Elections Administrator John Oldham said his office is receiving a variety of inquiries about voting. The nature of those inquiries has evolved due to recent changes to identification requirements and the county changing to countywide rather than district polling though. Now, he said, voters tend to simply be asking if they are registered. Oldham said Fort Bend County only had one case of attempted voter fraud in the 2016 elections wherein an individual tried to vote twice. The individual claimed that he had voted at one location and then attempted to vote at a second location because he wanted to see if it was possible. More than 267,000 people voted in the county during that election. Oldham said the Elections Administration does not keep a tally on how many people have used the Reasonable Impediment Declaration form which explains why a prospective voter does not have a valid photo ID. The county does track the number of provisional votes that it processes, wherein a voter does not have a voter registration on record and their ballot and registration are then reviewed prior to being included in the tally. The county had 644 provisional ballots, only four of which were accepted. “The only thing we know is how many provisional ballots we have because someone doesn’t have proper ID,” Oldham said. “Most provisionals are due to somebody not being registered at all.” Oldham encourages all registered voters to participate in the primary elections, rather than just the November elections. “[You’ll] have more choices on who is going to represent you, so people who choose not to [vote in primaries] really limit their options,” Oldham said. This election cycle has an unusually high number of prominent open races, with eight Texans in the U.S. House opting not to run for re-election, and more than a dozen in the Texas Legislature doing the same. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Gov. Greg Abbott, both Republicans, are up for re-election and facing primary challengers. So are Land Commissioner George P. Bush, Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller and Railroad Commissioner Christi Craddick, all of whom are Republicans. We’ve compiled an overview of some of the upcoming races, what forms of ID are acceptable at the polls and how Texas voters can learn more about the 2018 candidates and races.