Voting opens November 1
The Texas Corn Producers Board will hold elections in three of its five voting regions to elect five board members where current members’ seats are expiring. Additionally, TCPB is holding a statewide referendum on its checkoff amounts. The TCPB referendum and its elections conducted by voting regions will be held from Nov. 1 until Nov. 15, 2023.
There are two seats open for election in Voting Region One, which consists of Carson, Dallam, Gray, Hansford, Hartley, Hemphill, Hutchinson, Lipscomb, Moore, Ochiltree, Oldham, Potter, Roberts, Sherman and Wheeler counties.
There are two seats open for election in Voting Region Three, which consists of Anderson, Angelina, Bandera, Bell, Blanco, Bosque, Bowie, Brewster, Brown, Burnet, Camp, Cass, Cherokee, Coke, Coleman, Collin, Comal, Comanche, Concho, Cooke, Coryell, Crane, Crockett, Culberson, Dallas, Delta, Denton, Ector, Edwards, El Paso, Ellis, Erath, Falls, Fannin, Franklin, Freestone, Gillespie, Glasscock, Grayson, Gregg, Hamilton, Harrison, Hays, Henderson, Hill, Hood, Hopkins, Houston, Hudspeth, Hunt, Irion, Jeff Davis, Johnson, Kaufman, Kendall, Kerr, Kimble, Lamar, Lampasas, Leon, Limestone, Llano, Loving, McCulloch, McLennan, Marion, Mason, Menard, Midland, Milam, Mills, Montague, Morris, Nacogdoches, Navarro, Panola, Parker, Pecos, Presidio, Rains, Reagan, Real, Red River, Reeves, Robertson, Rockwall, Runnels, Rusk, Sabine, San Augustine, San Saba, Schleicher, Shelby, Smith, Somervell, Sterling, Sutton, Tarrant, Terrell, Titus, Tom Green, Travis, Trinity, Upshur, Upton, Val Verde, Van Zandt, Ward, Williamson, Winkler, Wise, and Wood counties.
There is one seat open for election in Voting Region Four, which consists of Aransas, Austin, Bastrop, Bee, Brazoria, Brazos, Burleson, Caldwell, Calhoun, Chambers, Colorado, DeWitt, Fayette, Fort Bend, Galveston, Goliad, Gonzales, Grimes, Guadalupe, Harris, Jackson, Jasper, Jefferson, Karnes, Lavaca, Lee, Liberty, Madison, Matagorda, Montgomery, Newton, Orange, Polk, Refugio, San Jacinto, San Patricio, Tyler, Victoria, Walker, Waller, Washington, Wharton and Wilson counties.
Voters will be voting for qualified candidates who have sought nomination within the respective TCPB voting regions where elections are to occur. In Voting Region One, Mark Howard of Hartley County and Austin Sage of Dallam County have been nominated for the two available seats. The nominees for the two Voting Region Three seats are Todd Kimbrell of Hill County and Aaron Martinka of Milam County. The Voting Region Four seat nominee is Milton Charles Ring, Jr. of San Patricio County. Voters may also vote for board members by “writing in” the name of any eligible persons.
TCPB is also conducting a referendum on statewide increased checkoff amounts for corn and silage in conjunction with the biennial election. Eligible voters across the state will decide to increase the assessment to $0.148 per ton of silage and $0.02 per bushel of corn, which is produced and sold in Texas, would be collected and submitted to TCPB, effective June 1, 2024.
Corn producers eligible to vote in the referendum are any persons in the state engaged in the business of producing corn or causing corn to be produced for commercial purposes, including the owner of a farm on which corn is produced and the owner’s tenant or sharecropper. To vote in director elections, eligible corn producers must reside within a county located in the voting region they wish to vote.
The elections and referendum will be held by mail ballot. Election and referendum ballots containing the director nominations of all persons who have validly filed will be available Nov. 1, 2023, at Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service offices or by writing TCPB.
For a ballot to be valid, it must be mailed to the TCPB, 4205 N. Interstate 27, Lubbock, Texas 79403, with a postmark date of no later than Nov. 15, 2023.
###