Early votes start next week

Less than a week remains before polling locations open.

Early voting for May's school and city elections begins next Monday. Dates and hours this week are April 24-28 8 a.m.- 5 p.m., followed by May 1-2 7 a.m.-7 p.m. next week. Election Day is May 6.

Early voting locations are as follows:

• Elgin — Elgin Recreation Center, 361 N. S.H. 95;

• Bastrop — Bastrop County Courthouse Annex, 804 Pecan St., Lower Level, Conference Room;

• Smithville — Smithville Recreation Center, 106 Royston St.; and

• Cedar Creek — Bastrop County Cedar Creek Annex, 5785 FM 535.

As of April 16, there were 56,038 Bastrop County residents registered to vote — up 264 registrants in six months from before November 2022's election. The last day to receive an application for ballot by mail is April 25.

Based on the 2020 U.S. Census, 57% of Bastrop County’s 97,216 residents are registered to vote. The Census Bureau estimates Bastrop County’s population may have grown to 102,058 as of July 2022. If accurate, the over 56,000 voters would still make up more than half of the county.

To vote in the May 6 election in Texas, registered voters need to:

• be a U.S. citizen;

• be a resident of Bastrop County;

• be at least 17 years and 10 months old on the date your voter registration application is submitted, and at least 18 years of age on Election Day;

• not be a convicted felon, although you may be eligible to vote if you have completed your sentence, probation and parole; and

• not have been declared by a court exercising probate jurisdiction to be either totally mentally incapacitated or partially mentally incapacitated without the right to vote.

Voter registration in Texas is county-based. Residents can check to see if they’re already registered by visiting the secretary of state’s Am I Registered portal at https://tinyurl.com/4wcn4b9x.

For more information, visit https://www.bastropvotes.org.