Lubbock County Commissioners Court on Sept. 29 approved a series of election-administration items for the Nov. 4, 2025 special election, including the notice of election, early-voting schedule and locations, staffing for early-voting and ballot-board duties, and procedures for provisional ballots.

Elections Administrator Roxene Stinson told the court the elections office at 1308 Crickets Avenue will serve as the main early-voting polling location. The court approved the early-voting dates, times and locations, a list of early-voting lead clerks (to be updated as needed), and the appointment of Ronnie Gallagher as early-voting ballot-board judge and Beth (Bess) Shapiro as alternate under Texas Election Code §87.002. The court also approved Ronnie Gallagher, Beth Shapiro, Barb Succi, Patricia Paige and Lisa Hiricheta as ballot-board members, and named Roxene Stinson as central-counting station manager with Erin Cruz as tabulation supervisor, Kristen Phelps as assistant tabulation supervisor and Beth Bender as presiding judge for the central counting station pursuant to Texas Election Code chapter 127.

Stinson explained that the county will use 36 election-day vote centers for this special election instead of the 38 it usually uses for constitutional-amendment elections because two locations did not meet Americans with Disabilities Act requirements; in one instance the county said it could not close a street to create accessible parking and in another the school lunchroom could not be used for accessibility reasons. Stinson said the county expects relatively few provisional ballots for this special election; she estimated fewer than 100 provisional ballots would be cast and said historically less than 1% of provisional ballots are cured. "Less than 1%," Stinson said when asked about the cure rate.

The court also approved bilingual clerk appointments and set the cure-period procedures under Texas Election Code §65.0541 for voters who cast provisional ballots because they lacked acceptable identification.

Why it matters: The approvals set the staffing, locations and procedures necessary to operate the special election and to ensure ballots cast provisionally can be cured and counted when voters present required identification within the statutory cure period.

What was decided: The court approved the notice of election, early-voting schedule and locations, appointments for ballot-board and central-count staff, election-day vote centers numbering 36, and provisional ballot cure procedures.