{"id":167156,"date":"2026-02-16T21:27:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T21:27:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/167156\/"},"modified":"2026-02-16T21:27:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T21:27:09","slug":"fact-check-do-texas-voters-have-to-cast-votes-for-unopposed-candidates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/167156\/","title":{"rendered":"Fact check: Do Texas voters have to cast votes for unopposed candidates?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Editor\u2019s Note: El Paso Matters partners with <a href=\"https:\/\/gigafact.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Gigafact<\/a> to produce <a href=\"https:\/\/elpasomatters.org\/2024\/01\/30\/el-paso-matters-gigafact-fact-check-partnership\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">\u201cfact briefs\u201d<\/a> that examine claims about issues shaping our community.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>No.<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1771277228_960_factBriefImage.jpeg\" alt=\"\" style=\"width:150px\"\/><\/p>\n<p>There is no law that requires voters to cast a vote in every race \u2013 contested or\u00a0 uncontested, according to the Texas Election Code.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Not marking a vote in one race does not invalidate the entire ballot, the code states.<\/p>\n<p>Unopposed candidates in Texas do not need to receive a specific number of votes to be elected, according to the code.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Not casting a vote in a contested race where you can only vote for one candidate is called an undervote, according to the Texas Secretary of State.<\/p>\n<p>This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/texas\/comments\/1gc1g2c\/friendly_reminder_you_dont_have_to_vote_for_an\/?utm_source=share&amp;utm_medium=web3x&amp;utm_name=web3xcss&amp;utm_term=1&amp;utm_content=share_button\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">this one<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Sources<\/p>\n<p>Related<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/elpasomatters.org\/author\/brandy-ruiz\/\" rel=\"author nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" data-perfmatters-preload=\"\" alt=\"Avatar photo\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Brandy-Ruiz-scaled-e1640132858282-80x80.jpg\"  class=\"avatar avatar-80 photo\" height=\"80\" width=\"80\" fetchpriority=\"high\"\/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBrandy Ruiz is an audience engagement reporter at El Paso Matters. She joined the staff in 2021 as a social media intern, completed a summer fellowship at the Texas Tribune and graduated with a degree&#8230;\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a class=\"author-link\" href=\"https:\/\/elpasomatters.org\/author\/brandy-ruiz\/\" rel=\"author nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMore by Brandy Ruiz\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Editor\u2019s Note: El Paso Matters partners with Gigafact to produce \u201cfact briefs\u201d that examine claims about issues shaping&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":167157,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[138,140,139,3927],"class_list":{"0":"post-167156","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-el-paso","8":"tag-el-paso","9":"tag-el-paso-headlines","10":"tag-el-paso-news","11":"tag-fact-check"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=167156"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167156\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/167157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=167156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=167156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=167156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}