Voters in a North Texas headed to the polls once again with signs of voter fatigue. Of the roughly 100,000 registered voters in rural state House District 68, 9 percent cast ballots.

The top finishers in the five-way race for the vacant House seat were David Spiller and Craig Carter, both Republicans. Both say they support a conservative agenda.

On Saturday, Spiller received 43.8 percent of the vote and Carter received 18.07 percent, barely beating third-place finisher John Berry, who received 17.44 percent, according to the unofficial results posted on the Secretary of State’s website.

Other candidates were Jason Brinkley, a Republican who received 16.29 percent of the vote, and Charles Gregory, a Democrat, who received 4.32 percent of the vote.

Spiller served as Jacksboro’s city attorney for more than 30 years and as the town’s school board trustee for more than 20 years. Carter, a Nocona businessman and philanthropist, also ran and lost in the special election state Senate race.

The election was scheduled less than one month ago to fill the House seat vacated by Drew Springer, who was sworn in earlier this month to his hotly contested state Senate seat by Gov. Greg Abbott. Springer had won his fifth term in the state House representing District 68 in November. But he vacated the seat in December after he won a special runoff election for Senate District 30.

Voters had already participated in two special elections last year in the district’s most populous counties of Cooke, Montague, Young and Jack.

Slightly more than 100,000 people are registered to vote in a heavily Republican rural district that covers 22 counties: Childress, Collingsworth, Cooke, Cottle, Crosby, Dickens, Fisher, Floyd, Garza, Hall, Hardeman, Haskell, Jack, Kent, King, Montague, Motley, Stonewall, Throckmorton, Wheeler, Wilbarger, and Young.

Abbott has yet to set a date for the runoff election.