Maps of voter turnout rates by county in Tuesday’s runoffs for U.S. Senate and lieutenant governor paint ghostly pictures of Texas.

State Sen. Dan Patrick of Houston won the Republican nomination for lieutenant governor with 65 percent of the votes cast in last night’s runoff election, but he earned votes from only 3.5 percent of registered Texas voters, according to the secretary of state.

Enlargegraphic by Dan Hill

In the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate, the 145,000 voters who nominated David Alameel of Dallas represented just 1 percent of the people who can vote in Texas.

Enlargegraphic by Dan Hill

Overall, the combined statewide turnout in Tuesday’s runoffs was 951,461 — lower than the March 4 primary number of 1.8 million, and the 1.3 million turnout in the last primary runoffs in July 2012. Texas has 13.6 million registered voters, according to the secretary of state.

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Dan Keemahill gathers and analyzes data on health outcomes and access in Texas. A native of Sacramento, Dan is a graduate of Northwestern University and started his journalism career as a contributor to...

Ross Ramsey co-founded The Texas Tribune in 2009 and served as its executive editor until his retirement in 2022. He wrote regular columns on politics, government and public policy. Before joining the...