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Early voting has opened in Texas. Residents of Burnet County can vote in four locations, including the Granite Shoals Community Center. Connie Swinney/Burnet Bulletin
Early voting for the Nov. 3 general election began Tuesday, Oct. 13, and continues through Friday, Oct. 30, in both Burnet and Llano counties.
Despite the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, turnout is expected to be high since this year marks a presidential election year and there is a U.S. Senate race on the ballot as well. Plus, there will be some school district and city elections for voters to decide as well. For more on those races, see story above.
Burnet County
Early voting in Burnet County will be held from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays (with special hours of 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 22, and Thursday, Oct. 29 and from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 24).
There are four available locations for early voting this year:
• Burnet County AgriLife Extension Auditorium, 607 N. Vandeveer #100, Burnet.
• Marble Falls County Courthouse Annex, 810 Steve Hawkins Pkwy., Marble Falls.
• Granite Shoals Community Center, 1208 N. Phillips Ranch Road, Granite Shoals.
• Joann Cole Mitte Memorial Library, 170 N. Gabriel, Bertram.
Applications for ballot by mail shall be mailed to: Burnet County Early Voting Clerk, 220 S. Pierce St.
Burnet, TX 78611. Once early voting has begun, applications can be dropped off in person (only by the requestor) to Burnet County Elections Office, 106 W. Washington St., Burnet (northwest of Courthouse Square, next to Happy Scoops).
You can also fax an application for mail-in ballot to 512-715-5287 or email elections@burnetcountytexas.org, but the original application must be received within four business days and you should call 512-715-5288 to confirm. Applications for ballot by mail must be received no later than the close of business on Friday, Oct. 23.
The last day to turn in ballots by mail is Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2020 at 7 p.m. Mail ballots can be hand-delivered to Burnet County Elections Office, 106 W. Washington St., Burnet, but you must bring only the ballot and show your ID.
Burnet County officials say they remedied a mail-in ballot application problem for military personnel and citizens oversees as quickly as it arose, avoiding deadline issues prior to a state elections deadline.
Burnet County Elections Administrator Doug Ferguson explained how the local office corrected its first mailin ballot outreach to military personnel and citizens overseas.
“Statewide there were three green party candidates that were left out of the certification (list) by the state,” Ferguson said. “There were already Green Party candidates on the ballot, but there were three who were missing.
“The only thing we mailed out was email ballots, federal post cards (mail applications), to military personnel overseas,” he said. “It might have been 40 (emails).”
The office faced a Sept. 19 deadline for that specific group, so administrators sent the items about three days early.
“We like to be ahead of the game,” he said.
A ruling from the state regarding the Green Party challenge arrived about a day later, Ferguson explained.
“We did our change to the programming, retested and sent those out to the military and overseas citizens.”
Overseas citizens and military personnel are the sole groups who can request an email ballot.
“We redid everything,” he said. “We were able to resend those.
“We still sent them out by the deadline. Everything we’ve done since then has been correct, with the corrected data.”
The corrections were made prior to sending 2,500 local requested mail ballots, Ferguson added.
Llano County There will be three locations in Llano Countyfor early voting:
• Llano County Library, 102 E. Haynie, Llano, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Mondays (Oct. 19 and Oct. 26), 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, and 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 24.
• Kingsland Public Library, 125 W. Polk, Kingsland, from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, and 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 24.
• Horseshoe Bay City Hall, 1 Community Drive, Horseshoe Bay, from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.
Applications for ballot by mail shall be mailed to: Llano County Elections, P.O. Box 787, Llano, TX 78643. Applications for ballot by mail must be received no later than the close of business on Friday, Oct. 23.
Llano County
The last day to turn in ballots by mail is Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2020 at 7 p.m. Mail ballots can be hand-delivered to Llano County Elections Office, 1447A E. Texas 71, Llano, but you must bring only the ballot and show your ID.
