Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Texas Secretary of State John Scott reminded all eligible Texas voters to make sure they are registered to vote ahead of the Jan. 31 voter registration deadline for the March 1 Primary Elections in Texas.

Voters registered by Jan. 31 can also participate in Early Voting, which begins Feb. 14 and ends Feb. 25.

In Texas, voters register with their respective county voter registrars, which are housed within Elections Administrator offices or Tax Assessor-Collector offices, depending on the county.

Scott encouraged all Texans who are eligible to get registered and get informed as they prepare to head to the polls next month:

“Registering to vote in Texas is easy and straightforward – so long as you are a qualified voter, you can send in a voter registration application to your county’s voter registrar by January 31st and you’ll be eligible to vote in the upcoming Primary Election,” Scott said.

“We want all eligible Texans to participate in all of this year’s upcoming elections, including the Primary Elections in which voters will choose the candidates to appear on the November 2022 General Election ballot. Don’t wait until the last minute – start the registration process today!”

To be eligible to vote in Texas, you must be:

• A United States citizen;
• A resident of the county where you submit the application;
• At least 17 years and 10 months old on the date your voter registration application is submitted, and 18 years of age on Election Day.
• Not finally convicted of a felony (you may be eligible to vote once you have completed your sentence, probation, and parole); and
• Not declared by a court exercising probate jurisdiction to be either totally mentally incapacitated or partially mentally incapacitated without the right to vote.

Texas is an open primary state, which means that voters do not ‘register’ as members of a particular political party. Rather, eligible Texas voters can cast a ballot in either party’s primary election – but not both.

Primary Elections are run by the Republican and Democrat parties in each of Texas’ 254 counties.

Party chairs in each county are responsible for conducting voting on Election Day, while county election officials administer the Early Voting period.

Texans can check to verify their registration status ahead of the Jan. 31 deadline by visiting the Texas Secretary of State’s My Voter Portal.