AUSTIN — Did you think the debate over the bathroom bill was over? Not if you’re voting in the Republican primary election, even if the issue never comes up in the races you care about.

The Republican Party is asking its primary voters to weigh in on whether transgender people’s use of public restrooms should be restricted, the issue that dominated last year’s legislative sessions.

The ballot proposition, it should be noted, doesn’t use the word transgender. Instead, it asks whether Texas should protect the privacy and safety of women and children in restrooms in schools and government buildings.

That’s the same rhetoric used to push the transgender restrictions in the past legislative session.

House Speaker Joe Straus, R-San Antonio, successfully fought the efforts by Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick to pass the legislation last year, citing the potential of economic boycotts and harm to vulnerable transgender people.

But Straus won’t be back for the 2019 legislative session, so foes and supporters alike have a reason to weigh in on whether the issue should be pursued with potentially more likelihood of success.

The bathroom measure is one of 11 primary ballot propositions on the Republican ballot. For the Democrats, there are a dozen ballot propositions, dubbed the “Texas Bill of Rights,” that promote such issues as universal health care and chipping away at crushing student debt.

The nonbinding propositions won’t change the law. But they are a way to shape the party’s message and let leaders know if voters want an issue to be addressed.

If an idea gets overwhelming support, backers can use the vote to help drive legislation.

The propositions that were chosen show the differing approaches of the parties, and voters can decide whether to continue or mitigate those positions.

Besides the bathroom proposition, for example, the Republican ballot asks whether families should be able to get tax credits or exemptions “without government constraints or intrusion” when they choose private schools or home schooling.

The proposition frames it as parents being able to choose either of those two options, charter schools or public schools.

The GOP explains that parents would “take their own tax money and use it for their children’s education in whatever setting they choose.” It says, without further explanation, that the idea wouldn’t allow parents to “use other people’s tax money for their own children.”

School voucher proposals have repeatedly failed in the Legislature, with opponents voicing concern that they would drain money from already underfunded public schools.

Among other propositions, the Republican Party is asking its voters whether abortion should be abolished, which the state couldn’t do without a change in the Roe vs. Wade decision by the U.S. Supreme Court guaranteeing a woman’s right to choose abortion.

The GOP says that it’s a statement “that we want abortion to stop.” The Republican-majority Legislature year after year has successfully pushed legislation that makes abortion more difficult.

In the Democratic Party primary, the ballot doesn’t specifically ask voters about the bathroom bill, but it does have a proposition asking whether everyone should have a right to “a life of dignity and respect, free from discrimination and harassment anywhere, including businesses and public facilities.”

Democrats also ask their voters to weigh in on whether everyone in Texas should have the right to refinance student loan debt with the Federal Reserve at zero percent interest.

And Democratic voters will have a chance to weigh in on whether all workers should have paid family leave, paid sick leave and a living wage.

Some issues are addressed by both parties in different ways.

On immigration, Democrats ask whether voters support an earned path to citizenship for law-abiding immigrants and their children and protecting Dreamers, immigrants brought here as children. They include two other points — keeping families together and providing “workforce solutions” for business.

Republicans ask whether voters believe that Texas “should require employers to screen new hires through the free E-Verify system to protect jobs for legal workers.”

With regard to health care, Republicans want voters to weigh in on whether Texas should demand the complete repeal of Obamacare.

Democrats seek voters’ opinion on whether everyone in Texas should have health care, “guaranteed by a universal, quality Medicare-for-all system.”

On taxes, Democrats ask their voters to say whether there should be a “fair tax system” in which all interests pay their share.

Republicans are more specific on taxes, addressing them in three ways: whether Texas should replace the property tax system with “an appropriate consumption tax equivalent” (the proposition doesn’t say this, but the sales tax is a consumption tax); impose a 4 percent cap on local property tax revenue increases unless there is voter approval; and ban tax dollars to build stadiums for professional or semipro teams.

When it comes to voting itself, the parties’ approaches also differ.

Democrats ask if their voters believe that every eligible Texan should have the right to vote; whether there should be voter-friendly initiatives such as automatic voter registration and a state election holiday; and whether voting should be free from “corporate campaign influence, foreign interference or illegal gerrymandering.”

Republicans want voters to decide whether election fraud should be an automatic felony, rather than being a Class A misdemeanor that can be elevated to a felony depending on circumstances.

Those who didn’t cast a ballot during the early voting period, which ended Friday, have one more chance to vote: Election day is Tuesday.