The March 5 joint primary elections, which help decide the candidates on the November general election ballot, saw around a 19% voter turnout in Hays County.

“Primaries are elections that political parties use to select candidates for a general election. Then, each party’s candidates run against each other in the general election,” a document on the Federal Voter Assistance Program’s website stated.

According to the Hays County Elections Office, this year’s primary saw about 8.5% of registered voters vote on the Democrat ballot and 10.4% vote on the Republican ballot.

The turnout in Hays County was in line with the approximate 18% turnout in the 2022 midterm primaries but was lower than the 29% turnout rate in the 2020 primary elections.

For the presidential candidates, there are still primary elections in other states until June 4, when South Dakota has its presidential primary. After the final primary, both the Republican National Committee and the Democratic National Committee will officially nominate their respective candidate.

In Hays County, Joe Biden won the Democratic primary with approximately 86% of the vote and Donald Trump won the Republican primary with about 71% of the vote.

For local and state races that did not have any candidate receive 50% or more of the votes in their primary race, the two candidates who received the most votes will head to the May 28 primary runoff elections.

“If no candidate for nomination to a particular office receives the vote required for nomination in the general primary election, a runoff primary election shall be held to determine the nomination,” Texas Election Code § 172.004 stated.

For Hays County, the runoffs will include the Democratic candidates for Tax Assessor-Collector (Jessica Sanchez and Jennifer Escobar) and Justice of the Peace Precinct 2 (J.R. Mendoza and Amanda Calvert).

With local and state races, for candidates who won more than 50% of the votes in their primary races the next step will be campaigning against the candidate from their rival party ahead of the November 5 general election.

“A general election is an election in which candidates are elected to offices,” Ballotpedia’s page on general elections stated. “General elections occur at local, state, and federal levels, and typically occur at regular intervals.”

The Hays County general election will include many races such as the president, one federal senator, congressional representatives, the Hays County sheriff, multiple district judges and more.

To view the full results of the joint primary elections, visit https://universitystar.com/25474/news/heres-what-hays-county-residents-voted-for-in-the-2024-joint-primary-elections/.