Original reporting provided by Alex Samuels, reporter at The Texas Tribune. Supplemental reporting provided by Hannah Zedaker, reporter at Community Impact Newspaper.   With the March 6 primary elections fast approaching, races across the Montgomery County ballot are starting to heat up. This year, Texas has the earliest primaries in the country. "In a primary election, the Democratic Party and the Republican Party in Texas select their nominees, which will be on the general election ballot in November—that's the purpose of those candidate races," said Suzie Harvey, Montgomery County's elections administrator and voter registrar. Harvey has served as Montgomery County’s elections administrator and voter registrar since 2011 and has worked for the elections department since 2007. In that time, Harvey said she is unaware of any county-documented voter ID fraud cases. Harvey said some of the most common questions her office receive from voters relate to the pre-filled voting applications, which campaigns and political parties send to voters, how to apply for a ballot by mail option, information about candidates and to check on his or her voter registration status. “We can tell them who is on the ballot if they ask or we can mail them a sample ballot if they ask or refer them to our website, but if they want actual information about candidates, of course, we don’t have that and wouldn’t share it," Harvey said. "So we refer them to their party of interest.” Harvey also said that no one gets turned away from the polls for a lack of proper ID. "It's actually illegal [to turn someone away for lack of proper ID]," she said. "If someone doesn't have proper ID, a new law for voter ID went into effect Jan. 1 so there's an alternate remedy for people who can't reasonably obtain one or have some type of reasonable impediment to obtaining a proper ID." That alternate remedy includes filling out a reasonable impediment declaration form and showing an alternate form of documentation or a supporting form of ID, which are listed on the Secretary of State's website, in addition to Montgomery County Election's website. "The first time that was used was in the November 2016 election and there were 270 forms submitted in Montgomery County," Harvey said. "Then, we didn't have any until November 2017 and there was only one and it was actually an error on the part of the poll worker. That person should have voted a provisional ballot, but they used the wrong form by mistake." Harvey said a provisional ballot is another option for those who may have forgotten to bring proper ID to the polls, however, voters who opt to use a provisional ballot have six days to resolve it, which means they must follow-up with a visit to the elections office. "It's very important for people to check in advance to make sure they're registered [to vote] at the address where they think they're registered, so they know where they're supposed to vote if they vote on Election Day," Harvey said. "It's also important for them to check their sample ballot in advance so they know what to expect when they head to the polls" 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. Other statewide officials seeking re-election include Land Commissioner George P. Bush, Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller and Railroad Commissioner Christi Craddick, all of whom are Republicans.