Liberty County orders special and local-option elections, consolidates precincts and sets election procedures for Nov. 4

Liberty County Commissioners Court on July 29 voted to order several elections and take formal steps to prepare for the Nov. 4, 2025 general and special elections, including a special election on proposed state constitutional amendments and a local-option election in Justice of the Peace Precinct 5.

County clerk Catherine Chambers told the court the first item on the special agenda was to “discuss and approve the order of a special election for the adoption or rejection of the proposed constitutional amendments as submitted by the 80 ninth legislature, regular session of the state of Texas.” Chambers said the county must “order the election” and the court approved that motion. The court recorded the motion and approved it by voice vote.

Chambers also presented a petition-driven local-option election to allow the legal sale of malt beverages and wine for off-premise consumption in Justice of the Peace Precinct Number 5. “They have done all the formalities. We…have checked every one of them. They have a sufficient number of signatures to get on the ballots,” Chambers said, noting the office checked 1,440 names of registered voters in the precinct. The court approved the order to place the local-option question on the ballot.

The court approved consolidation of several smaller polling locations for the Nov. 4 election. Chambers said consolidations are being done because it is difficult to staff some sites and turnout in those locations has been low; she said the county would consolidate “about 6 or 7 locations” by pairing them with neighboring precincts. Commissioners approved the consolidation list presented in the meeting packet.

The court approved the list of election judges and alternate judges for the consolidated precincts, with commissioners and political parties having reviewed the list. Chambers warned the court that recent changes in election law require the early voting ballot board to perform a partial manual count, which will increase staffing and training needs: “the early voting ballot board has to do the partial manual count,” she said, and the county will need to add people to the early-voting and central-count teams and schedule training.

Chambers notified the court that the required public test of automatic tabulating equipment is set for Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2025, at the Liberty County Clerk Election Office, 1915 Trinity Street, Liberty, Texas. She said the county scheduled the test on the latest allowable date because of problems with the Secretary of State’s election-management software and that the test will be larger than in prior years to comply with new law. The court approved the notice of the test.

Finally, the court approved the use of Liberty County employees and equipment for the Nov. 4 elections, including sheriff’s deputies for ballot pickup, courthouse security for the election office and commissioners’ employees to transport equipment.

The actions were routine preparations for the Nov. 4 elections; the clerk and staff noted procedural changes imposed by recent election-law revisions and a need for additional trained workers for early-voting and tabulation duties. The court completed the election-related agenda items by voice votes with motions and seconds recorded on the public record.