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. In 2016, Harris County had 2.2 million registered voters. Of those, 1.3 million voted with more than 953,000 of them voting early. Talk of voter fraud and a court battle over Texas' 2011 voter ID law may have residents wondering how prevalent voter ID issues are in Harris County.  Following the 2016 election, two Harris County poll workers were convicted of voter fraud according to a statement from the County Clerk's Office. "My office found convincing evidence that voter fraud was committed," Harris County Clerk Stan Stanart said in a May 2017 statement. "The evidence was provided to the Harris County District Attorney's Office who presented the case to a Harris County Grand Jury." No evidence of significant voter fraud in the county was found during that election. Statewide, the primary concern seems to be confusion regarding identification requirements, said Dale Blasingame, senior lecturer at Texas State University's School of Journalism and Mass Communication. Blasingame headed Texas State's "Electionland" coverage, a cooperative effort by Politico and various other journalism organizations to monitor the election for voter suppression and fraud using social media research tools.  Most of the issues during the 2016 election that the project found involved voters or poll workers not understanding the state's voter ID requirements. At the time,Blasingame said most issues were quickly handled once brought to the attention of voting authorities. “I believe the strength of the electoral process stems from an informed and engaged citizenry,” Stanart said via the county clerk’s website. “Thus, as chief elections officer of Harris County, I strongly encourage all qualified citizens to exercise their right to vote.” This election cycle has an unusually high number of prominent open races, with eight Texan congressional representatives opting not to run for re-election, and more than a dozen in the state Legislature doing the same. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Gov. Greg Abbott are up for re-election and facing primary challengers, as are Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush, Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller and Texas Railroad Commissioner Christi Craddick, all of whom are Republicans. Here is an overview of selected upcoming races, acceptable forms of ID at the polls, and how Texas voters can learn more about the 2018 candidates and races.