Early voting ends in House District 145 special election runoff

Melissa Noriega, left, and Christina Morales, candidates for Texas House District 145 Melissa Noriega, left, and Christina Morales, candidates for Texas House District 145 Photo: Staff Photos / Staff Photo: Staff Photos / Staff Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Early voting ends in House District 145 special election runoff 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

Early voting in the House District 145 special election runoff ended Friday with a spike in turnout, though only a small fraction of registered voters have cast ballots so far in the election.

A total of 1,417 votes were cast in person and by mail through five days of early voting, not far from the 1,526 votes cast through the first round's 11-day early voting period.

About 73,000 registered voters live in the district.

Democrats Christina Morales and Melissa Noriega are the two runoff contestants after they finished first and second, respectively, in the first round of the special election. They are vying to fill the seat last occupied by state Sen. Carol Alvarado, D-Houston, who was elected to the upper chamber in a December special election.

ON HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM: Rural Texas shrugs as ‘voter fraud alert’ plays out in the cities

Both candidates have acknowledged the difficulty of drawing voters to the polls, though the Harris County Clerk's office did record 469 votes Friday, by far the highest single-day total of the early voting period.

The overall increase in per-day turnout from the first round can be attributed to an uptick in mail ballots: The clerk's office has recorded more than 400 mail ballots so far, while only about 80 had been returned by the end of early voting last month.

In the first round of the special election, 1,879 voters turned out on Election Day, Jan. 29. Overall, 3,499 people voted in the first round, amounting to about 4.8 percent of registered voters.

STATE POLITICS: Get the most out of what's going on politically through our Texas Take newsletter. Sign up here.