Voting registration deadline next week

The deadline to register to vote in the May election is next week. With one locally contested election in May, the deadline to register to vote is Thursday, April 4.

The first day to apply for a ballot by mail for the election taking place is Saturday, May 4.

The Breckenridge City Commission has two contested elections, with Place 1 and Place 2 both having multiple filings.
Blake Hamilton, the incumbent for Place 1 will face challenger Tony Patterson.

Place 2 Commissioner Rob Durham will face former commissioner Greg Akers for the position. Akers abruptly resigned the Place 1 position following a disagreement during an August 2022 meeting.

The position of city mayor was up for election, however, Mayor Bob Sims was the only candidate to file for the position.
The city of Breckenridge will hold its election Saturday, May 4 at City Hall, located at 105 N. Rose Ave. Early voting will take place April 22-30.

Stephens Memorial Hospital had four at-large positions up for election. Those positions are held by Kevin Simmons, Wade Toombs, Todd Tidwell and Bruce Curry. Only the four incumbents filed to run for these positions and the election was canceled during the board’s Feb. 29 meeting.

Breckenridge ISD had two open school board positions. These were the Place 1 and Place 2 positions held by Graham Reaugh and Paul Lippe, respectively.

BISD Superintendent Bryan Allen announced during the board’s Feb. 12 meeting that both board members would not run for re-election.

Each position had only one candidate file with Ky Kennedy running for Place 1 and Cheyanna Gill running for Place 2. BISD canceled its election during its March 18 meeting.

Local political subdivisions are not required to hold an election for uncontested races. The unopposed candidates are automatically elected.

The last day to file a declaration of write-in candidacy was Tuesday, Feb. 20.

In order to be eligible to apply for ballot by mail, voters must be 65 years of age or older on election day, sick or disabled, expecting to give birth within three weeks before or after election day, absent from the county of registration during the voting period (early voting and election day), civilly committed or confined in jail but otherwise eligible.

Applications for a ballot by mail must include one of the following: a driver’s license number, personal identification number, or elections identification certificate number issued by the Texas Department of Public Safety. If none of those numbers have been issued, the last four digits of your social security number. Disabled voters 65 years of age or older may file a single application for all eligible elections in the calendar year. Applications must be received (not postmarked) by the last day of the application period.