Through 12 days of early voting, turnout for the 2022 midterm elections is lower than in 2018, according to unofficial data from the Harris County Office of the Elections Administrator.
Including in-person voters and mail-in ballots, 750,349 people have voted early this year, compared to 855,711 in 2018; 29.8% of registered voters have voted early in 2022, down from 37.1% in 2018.
Brandon Rottinghaus, a political science professor at the University of Houston, said turnout has been down across the state and that voters in Texas are generally reluctant to vote in midterm elections.
“It’s hard to get people to vote in midterm elections, despite the fact that it’s really important, and there are a lot of critical races that are on the ballot,” Rottinghaus said. “[This year’s turnout] is kind of keeping with the historical pattern we’ve seen before. The last couple of cycles we’ve seen turnout increase, but those could be just an anomaly.”
