Today, Monday, April 24, 2023, begins early voting for Municipal Elections. There are only two races on the ballot. In the City of Brownfield, there were four seats that could have been on the ballot. In Districts 4, & 5, Councilwoman (Mayor Pro-Tem) Michelle Cooper who currently holds District 4, and Councilman Eric Horton who currently holds District 5 termed out and could not file for re-election for these positions. However, in Districts 4 and 5, only one person filed in each district and will automatically be placed. Marshall Martell will become the District 4 Councilman and Mark Williams will be the District 5 Councilman. Both will take the oath of office in May.
That leaves the two at-large positions, which are currently held by Councilmen Isaiah Bautista and Michael Tackitt, which both could refile to run for these seats, however only Tackitt filed for re-election. Four have filed for the At-large positions, which include incumbent Michael Tackitt, former City Councilman Leon Pope, Don Bishop, and Jimmy Garza. With four vying for two positions, there will be an election and it will be the top two who will take the seats.
The other municipal entity that has an election is Brownfield Regional Medical Center which has two Directors At-Large seats. Those two are currently held by Silvia Dingus and Joe Silva. Director Dingus opted to not run, however, Director Silva did file and two others also filed who is Jeffrey Michael Davis Jr and Erasmo “Raz” Gonzales. There will be an election and the top two will take those positions.
All other Municipal entities will not have an election. In the City of Meadow, there are three at-large positions and three people have filed. Two of them are incumbents Kandace Welch and Everett McArthur and the other is Nettie Ticer. All three will take the oath of office in May.
In the City of Wellman, there will not be any change. The Mayor’s positions, Seat 2 and Seat 4 are up with Mayor Eddie Garza as the current mayor, Councilwoman Rachel Escobar currently holding Seat 2, and Councilman Seth Hollowell holding Seat 4. All three filed for the same positions, and there will not be an election. Mayor Garza, Councilwoman Escobar, and Councilman Hollowell will take the oath of office in May.
Moving on to the school districts, again not much changed. Brownfield ISD had three seats to vote on. Trustee District 4 is up, which is currently held by Geoff Cooper who is the current President of the School Board and he has filed for this position. Trustee District 5 is coming up as well and is currently held by Tim Swaringen, which has also filed for the same position. There will be no election for Districts 4 and 5. Something to note, BISD District 1 seat is still open. It has been open for different election cycles.
Meadow ISD has two Trustee At-Large positions that became available. Currently, Rusty Day, who is the board president and Jim Ticer hold those two positions, and both have filed for those positions. The same goes for Wellman-Union ISD. At WUISD, there are also two Trustee At-Large positions that became available which are held by Board President James Harlan and Board Vice President Barrett Brown. Both have filed for the same positions.
The South Plains Underground Water Conservation District does not have any seats open this election cycle.
Early voting begins Monday, April 24, 2023, and runs through Friday, April 28, 2023, and May 1 & 2, 2023 from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm at the Terry County Joint Elections Office located at 507-A West Main. Election Day is Saturday, May 6, 2023, from 7:00 am to 7:00 pm at the Terry County Joint Elections Office located at 507-A West Main.
