A recent poll by Lubbock‘s Action Data suggests as many as 19% of known Republicans in West Texas are thinking about voting in the state’s Democratic Primaries.

Mike Stevens, co-owner of Action Printing and Action Data in Lubbock, says that‘s more than three times the normal 4-6% crossover in a typical primary year.

The poll was conducted in 70 counties, most all of which were west of Interstate 35. Action Data received more than 10,000 responses.

Stevens specializes in polling data, and one of the questions he asked typical Republican voters was if they‘re considering voting in the Democratic Primary, and nearly 1/5 of respondents said yes.

"As a maximum, we found that 19.25% of known Republican voters were going to consider voting in the Democrat Primary," said Stevens. "We‘ve surveyed this before, and it has always held true that 4% to 6% will jump, but it’s never been 19.25%, it‘s never been close to one out of five voters."

Stevens said the reasons given why are basically split three ways.

According to Stevens, about 1/3 of Republicans considering voting in the Democratic Primary said it‘s to help President Donald Trump — the Republican intends to vote for the candidate they believe President Trump will have the best chance of beating in the November general election. Stevens said this tactic generally referred to as "operation chaos," where voters of one party try to influence the election in the others’ primary.

Another third are Republicans said they prefer a Democrat over President Trump. Stevens called this "buyer‘s remorse," saying it‘s Republicans who regret voting for President Trump.

And the last third are Republicans said they want to vote for a down-ballot Democrat, whether it‘s a Democrat in the race for U.S. Senate or a number of local elections.

It‘s unclear how this type of movement could impact local races. Stevens said it’s moderate Republicans who are most likely to vote in the Democratic Primaries, which could hurt the more moderate local candidates.

Stevens‘ survey was conducted on people with a history of voting in the Republican Primary.

Texas is one of 14 states with primary elections on March 3, known as Super Tuesday. Voters choose either to vote in the Republican Primary or the Democratic Primary, but cannot vote in both. Once the voter chooses a party, he or she cannot change party affiliation during the calendar year — so voting in the Republican Primary means you can only vote in the Republican Primary runoffs. It won‘t impact who you can vote for in November.

As of Wednesday afternoon, there were 176,462 people registered to vote in Lubbock County. In the 2016 primary elections, the last time there were presidential primaries, about 10,200 votes were cast in Lubbock County for the Democratic Primary, and 43,000 votes were cast in the Republican Primary.

About 34% of Lubbock County’s registered voters turned out in the 2016 primary elections. Although 60% of registered voters turned out in the 2016 general election.

Election day is March 3, and early voting lasts from Feb. 18 to Feb. 28.