Early voting started yesterday and runs through Friday. The election is April 8. These are runoffs for the party primaries, so expect much, much lower turnouts. A couple of races to watch:

• The Republican runoff for sheriff between Jim Bowles and Lowell Cannady. Would I be surprised if Bowles wins? Not at all, especially if turnout is very low.

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• The Democratic runoff between Steve Love and Eric Roberson for the District 32 U.S. house nomination, and the chance to run against incumbent Pete Sessions. Talk about a thankless task. Roberson got the most votes the first time around, an impressive achievement for a little-known candidate without much party support.

• We argue all the time here about whether Dallas County is actually turning Democratic, and my views are well known. But there is a U.S. House race in Houston in which a Democrat is running against an incumbent Republican in a very GOP district, and where the Democrat has a chance to win. It’s the seventh district in west Harris County (the elder Bush’s old seat), featuring former wind energy executive Michael Skelly and Rep. John Culberson. There’s a poll that says Skelly has a chance in a district that hasn’t elected a Democrat since 1966, and where the younger Bush got 64 percent of the vote in 2004.