Original reporting provided by Alex Samuels, reporter at The Texas Tribune. Supplemental reporting provided by Marie Albiges, reporter at Community Impact Newspaper. As the March 6 primary elections approach, races across the Hays County ballot are starting to heat up. This year, Texas has the earliest primaries in the country. "We've been forward-thinking for several months now, and we've been pretty prepared for just about everything," Hays County Elections Administrator Jennifer Anderson said. She said some of the most common inquiries she receives are questions on where and when to vote as well as whether a resident is registered to vote, how to change the address on their registration and what precinct they live in. Anderson said she isn't aware of any voter fraud cases reported in Texas. If a voter does not have the necessary forms of identification at the polling place, he or she is still able to vote provisionally and given the chance to present the appropriate documents. Citizens who vote provisionally must fill out a Reasonable Impediment Declaration. Anderson said in Hays County, she received 49 Reasonable Impediment Declarations in the November 2016 elections and two in the November 2017 elections. In an interview, Anderson encouraged residents to go to the polls. “If you want to know where your biggest tax dollars are spent, they are spent locally,” she said. “To me [local elections] impact the citizens of Hays County more in those areas because these are the people that are making decisions on your services; these are the people that are collecting your tax dollars right here and using them more directly on you. They affect me more on a daily basis than the federal government does.” 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.