More than 104,600 people voted in person in Harris County on the first day of early voting, Oct. 19, according to county figures reported by FOX 26 Houston. The previous midterm record for an opening day, set in 2018, was 63,188. Early voting ends today.
Black Houston is part of that surge. The Houston Defender reports that the Acres Homes and Sunnyside Multi-Service Centers, two early voting sites in historically Black neighborhoods, had each recorded about 9,800 voters by Tuesday, and that each was expected to reach 10,000 by Friday. The Defender also reports that nearly 782,000 people had voted early across the county by Oct. 27, already more than in the 2022 early vote and closing on the roughly 1.2 million of 2018.
Voters who spoke to the Defender named prices before anything else. “Groceries are just too high,” one resident said. Others pointed to Medicaid cuts, public school funding and the Texas Education Agency’s takeover of Houston ISD, the state intervention in the district’s schools. An advocate told the paper that “people are hurting at the gas pump, in paying for their groceries” and are focused on holding candidates accountable to Black communities.
The turnout did not come on its own. The Houston Black American Democrats sent 150,000 mailers, the group’s largest mailing, aimed at infrequent voters. The Texas Organizing Project has put face-to-face conversations with new midterm voters at the center of its work.
The site totals show where people voted, not how they voted, and they are not a count of Black turnout alone.
Harris County runs 75 early voting locations, and any registered voter can use any of them today. On Tuesday, voters go to their assigned precinct polling place. The county’s elections department posts site totals each evening.
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