Saturday General Election follows light early turnout

By Glynis Crawford Smith

The Highlander

The early voting total for all of Burnet County reached only 762 by end of day Tuesday, May 2, the last day of early voting for the Saturday, May 6, General Election.

That was the the combined total of 340 voters at the Marble Falls Burnet County Courthouse Annex at 810 Steve Hawkins Parkway and 422 voters at the main Burnet County Courthouse at 220 South Pierce Street on the Burnet square.

The number of voters interested in local elections pales in comparison to the 2016 record-breaking early voting. More than 20 percent of the county's then 29,556 voters cast an early ballot in the presidential race.

Election Day voters will go to assigned, consolidated polling places Saturday between 7 a.m.-7 p.m. Those locations are listed, along with sample ballots and other information, on the Elections page of the county website, www.burnetcountytexas.org, as follows.

Granite Shoals voters Precincts 3 and 18 will beconsolidated at the Granite Shoals Fire Station, 8410 Ranch to Market Road 1431 West.

Meadowlakes and Cottonwood Shores voters of Precinct 19 will be consolidated at the Marble Falls Courthouse Annex.

The Burnet Precincts 1, 2, 8 and 17, and Burnet Consolidated Independent School District (BCISD) Precincts 9 and 20 will vote in the main courthouse in Burnet.

Bertram Precincts 10, 12 and 13 and BCISD Precinct 6 will vote at the Bertram Library, 170 North Gabriel Street.

BCISD voters in Williamson County Precincts 206, 207 and 310 will vote at the Briggs Community Center, 215 Loop 308 in Briggs.

BCISD voters in Llano County Pecincts 203, 204 and 205 will vote at Lakeshore Library, 7346 Ranch to Market Road/Texas 261 in Buchanan Dam.

The races

One seat is contested on the Burnet Consolidated Independent School District (BCISD) Board of Trustees. The candidates are Ross Behrens, Kerry Carroll and Mark Kincaid.

Mayors will be chosen for Burnet and Granite Shoals. In Granite Shoals, the choice is between incumbent Carl Brugger or Mike Steenbergen. In Burnet, Crista Goble Bromley and Philip Thurman vie for the leadership role as incumbent Gary Wideman has reached his term limit.

Burnet voters have a unique election for city council representation. They have a regular council election, featuring three places on the ballot, as well as a special election for the seat that was held by Thurman. By the terms of the Burnet City Charter, Thurman had to resign from the council with a year remaining on his term of office.

Running in the regular election are incumbents Tres Clinton and Paul Farmer and new candidates Zachary Worrell, Ashley Barnett and Cindia Talamantez. Candidates for the special election for Thurman's unexpired term are Milton “Mickey” Phair, Zachary DeLeon and Paul Shell.

Meadowlakes voters are deciding two seats on their city council: Edwin O'Hayre or Mel Hazlewood for Place 4 and Bobby Brown or Charles Henley for Place 5.

Voters in Cottonwood Shores and Bertram will consider the same reauthorization of sales tax revenue for streets. Proposition 1 on both ballots asks: “Shall the city council be reauthorized to impose a local sales and use tax at the rate of one-fourth of one percent to continue providing revenue for maintenance and repair of municipal streets?”

Also in Bertram, three city council members will emerge from a field including Pat Turner, Jane Scheidler, Jean Worrell, Mike Dickinson and Allen Rodgers.