It’s Election Day in Texas. Here’s what to watch.

TEXAS, USA — This story was first published on the Texas Tribune and can be viewed here. 

Texans are heading to the polls on Tuesday to decide the fate of 17 proposed amendments to the state Constitution, fill vacancies in Congress and the state Senate, and vote on scores of local offices and bond measures.

The off-year election is set to draw only a fraction of the turnout seen in typical even-year elections for the presidency and Congress, even with major referendums on the ballot affecting taxes, water, criminal justice and other areas.

As the polls opened Tuesday, more than a million Texans had already cast their ballots during the 12-day early voting period, which ended last week.

Here are three of the biggest storylines to watch on Election Day.

Residents of Texas’ 18th Congressional District have waited months for a special election to fill out the remainder of Rep. Sylvester Turner’s term. Turner died in March, leaving the seat vacant.

But with 16 candidates in the race, Houstonians will likely need to wait longer, with nobody expected to reach the 50% threshold needed to win outright. In that case, the race would head to a runoff early next year between the top two finishers Tuesday.

Harris County Attorney Christian Menefee and former Houston City Councilmember Amanda Edwards, both Democrats, have led most public polling of the race. State Rep. Jolanda Jones, D-Houston, was delayed in announcing her campaign while the Legislature was in session earlier this year, but she is also expected to be competitive.

While the district is heavily Democratic — having voted for Vice President Kamala Harris by a margin of nearly 40 percentage points — vote splitting among Democrats could allow a Republican candidate to make the runoff. Carmen Montiel Maria, a former Republican nominee for the seat, has polled highest among Republicans.

The 18th District has served as a launchpad for several storied Black politicians, including former Reps. Barbara Jordan and Sheila Jackson Lee — and Tuesday’s election could be the starting point for a lengthy congressional career for the winner. But redistricting has scrambled the politics of the district, whose boundaries will shift significantly come the March primary, when voters will pick the nominees for a full two-year term starting in 2027. Neighboring Rep. Al Green, D-Houston, was drawn into the new version of the 18th District and has heavily hinted he plans to run there.

The district encompasses downtown Houston and — for now — several of the city’s historic neighborhoods, including Third Ward and parts of The Heights and Acres Homes. Under the new lines, much of the 18th will be shifted to the south and northeast parts of Harris County.

In North Texas, two Republicans and a Democrat are facing off in the special election to fill the state Senate seat vacated by Acting Comptroller Kelly Hancock.

The winner of the special election — or any runoff election, if no candidate wins a majority of votes Tuesday — will serve out the rest of Hancock’s Senate term through the end of 2026. The seat has been vacant since Hancock resigned from the upper chamber in June.

The two Republican candidates vying to represent the solidly red district are conservative activist Leigh Wambsganss and former Southlake Mayor John Huffman. Both have touted their experience in conservative politics and pledged to focus on reducing property taxes. Wambsganss won most of the biggest Republican endorsements, including from President Donald Trump, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, the Senate president who has stocked the chamber with political allies. Huffman, on the other hand, has raked in millions of dollars in contributions from casino magnate Miriam Adelson and her pro-gambling groups.

Meanwhile, Taylor Rehmet, a union leader, machinist and Air Force veteran, is running a long-shot bid as a Democrat and focusing his campaign on working class interests.

The district, which covers about half of Fort Worth and much of Tarrant County’s northern suburbs, voted for Trump by over 17 percentage points last year. If a Republican wins the seat, as expected, the 31-member state Senate will be made up of 19 Republicans and 11 Democrats, with another vacant seat in a dark-red district based in Conroe to be filled in May.

Texas voters will decide whether to approve 17 proposed edits to the state’s Constitution, with major implications for property taxes, the state’s dwindling water supply and the rules governing its criminal justice system.

Most of the proposed amendments, which will be listed at the top of the ballot, seek to reduce taxes for various groups of Texas residents. Proposition 2 would prohibit the state from collecting taxes on money earned through capital assets like investments, real estate and valuable items. It would also end a franchise tax on business trusts.

Proposition 13 would increase the share of a home’s value that can’t be taxed to pay for public schools, from $100,000 to $140,000. A Tribune calculation shows that the owner of a typical Texas home, worth about $302,000 last year, would have saved about $490 on their school property taxes under the proposed change.

Proposition 4 asks voters to approve $20 billion over the next two decades for water projects mostly aimed at addressing aging pipes and infrastructure, developing new water sources and mitigating future floods.

Additionally, two measures could alter the state’s judicial system. Proposition 3 would require judges to deny bail to individuals accused of committing specific felonies, including murder, aggravated assault and indecency with a child, if the state demonstrates that doing so is necessary to ensure public safety or the defendant’s appearance in court.

And Proposition 12 would shake up the composition of the State Commission on Judicial Conduct, a 13-member oversight group that investigates judicial misconduct. The commission is currently made up of six judges appointed by the Texas Supreme Court, two attorneys appointed by the State Bar of Texas and five citizens appointed by the governor. If Proposition 12 is approved, the two lawyers would be replaced by additional Abbott-appointed citizens, putting the governor in charge of seven appointments — a majority of the body.

Proposition 14 would create a $3 billion Dementia Prevention and Research Institute of Texas to study dementia, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s disease and other brain-related conditions.