Voters in communities in the south and southeast area of Burnet County will find they’re in a new congressional district and will vote for or against a different U.S representative incumbent than in prior elections.
The change is due to the State of Texas redrawing the district lines (redistricting) that will take effect in November.
Burnet County Elections Administrator Mike Evans explained that three Burnet County voting pre- cincts are impacted by this change.
Voting precincts 4, 6 and 19 moved outside of the current District 31.
District 31
Prior to redistricting, District 31 took in all of Burnet County. The District 31 incumbent is U.S. Rep. John Carter (R-Georgetown), who is vying for the GOP nomination with a slew of challengers including serial candidate Abhiram Garapati, Vince “Shamwow Guy” Shlomi and MAGA firebrand Valentina Gomez Noriega.
Previously voting Pct. 19, which takes in Cottonwood Shores, included the City of Meadowlakes, but now Meadowlakes has been moved into a newly created precinct 20, so those voters will still see Carter as the incumbent congressman.
District 11
Currently, the Republican incumbent for District 11 is U.S. Rep. August Pfluger (R-San Angelo) which in the past and still includes all of Llano County and several counties to the west and southwest Burnet County.
Republican voters from Cottonwood Shores and a portion of south and southeast Burnet County such as the Spicewood and Smithwick area will now see Pfluger for District 11 with no opponent on their ballot. Some may have expected to see Carter’s name. And on the Democrats ballot in those areas, those voters will see Pedro Ruiz and Claire Reynolds vying for that party’s nomination.
The winners will go head-to-head in November.
Pfluger’s Chief of Staff John Byers talked about the changes in campaigning with the change in the geographic boundaries.
“Every time there is a reapportionment, congressional redistricting, when people have new representation, sometimes there is that kind of confusion, but we’re delighted to have southern Burnet County. That was a decision made by the legislature. Congressional members have no direct role over what their congressional district looks like,” Byers told lander. "We've been out to that area, we’ve “We’ve been been campaigning in that area. Everybody in southern Burnet County should have received some information in the mail.
“We’ve been to town halls, in person and virtually. We’re going to run a real race and earn their support. We have a district office in Llano. We’ve done a lot of work in Llano,” Byers added. “Llano and Burnet counties have a lot in common. We look forward to representing communities of interest like that.”
District 11 now extends through south Burnet County into northern Travis County as far out as Pflugerville and takes in parts of Leander, Cedar Park and the northern tip of the City of Austin and eastward through Pflugerville.
Along with those portions of southern Burnet County and Williamson County, District 11 continues to take in parts of far West Texas including Ector and Midland counties, while also traveling northward through Brown County.
Carter’s district, District 31, was drawn to include more northward communities, taking in Bell County, which includes Killeen.
“They basically inverted us, so John Carter (district) goes north; 31 goes north. It takes in Goldthwaite with Mills County and Lampasas. Those were previously in District 11,” Byers explained.
The last day of early voting is today from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. at the Burnet AgriLife Building with later times (primarily 8-5 p.m.) at Texas Tech in Marble Falls, Granite Shoals Community Center and the Bertram Community Center. Burnet County voters can cast ballots at any of those locations.
On Election Day, Tuesday, March 3, in addition to those centers, voters have more polling places: Granite Shoals Grace Methodist Church, Spicewood Community Center, Silver Creek Community, Naruna Church, Lake Victor Community Center, Briggs Firehouse, Oakalla Community Center and Meadowlakes City Hall.
For sample ballots, addresses and maps, visit burnetcountyelections. com.
