Commissioners canvass 2024 general election

Gonzales County commissioners held a special called meeting Monday, Nov. 18, to canvass the Nov. 5 general election.

County Elections Administrator Gwen Schaefer said the only issue they had the entire election was on Election Day when “somebody walked off with one of the ballots” at one of the voting precincts, which automatically voided that ballot as an election security issue.

“Once they walk out, they can’t come back in,” Schaefer said to commissioners.

There were 285 absentee ballots, which Schaefer called a really good amount, plus 5,941 votes cast during early voting and 1,568 on Election Day for a grand total of 7,794 out of the county’s 13,272 registered voters — a turnout of a little more than 58.7 percent.

The precinct with the highest number of votes cast was Precinct 1 (Randle-Rather Building) with 1,729, while the lowest can be found in Precinct 14 (Cheapside) with 72, but it also had the highest percentage turnout overall at 82.76 percent. The lowest percentage turnout was Precinct 4 (City of Nixon) which only saw 38.71 percent of its total voters take part in the election. It was the only voting precinct below 50 percent turnout.