Please allow for the legal disclaimer. The Fannin County Elections Administration works in conjunction with the Texas Secretary of State’s Office regarding our elections. The information being provided may not be applicable to other states and may not even portray other counties in Texas accurately. (Who knows what they are doing in Harris County?)

First, all citizens must be registered in order to vote. The deadline to register was October 5 for the upcoming November 3 General Election. Having said that, let’s talk about some of the issues.

Many people in the county have been receiving applications for absentee ballots by mail. While it’s nice that someone is trying to help, some of these applications are not in the correct format and did not come from the local elections office. If you fill it out and mail it to us, we may need to contact you and send you the correct form or get additional information over the phone.

One of the forms in question has places for the last four digits of your driver’s license number. In Texas, we are required to get your full driver’s license number OR the last four digits of your social security number. If you are already registered to vote by mail, we don’t need a new application until January. The SOS Office and our local office believe these forms are being generated and mailed from another state where the requirements are different. Unfortunately, there is no identifying information on the forms or we would try to correct the misinformation. If you are unsure of your status, please contact the Elections Administration.

So, what if you want to vote by mail? Please let us help you. The deadline to apply to vote by mail is October 23, 2026. Please contact our office for an application and we will be happy to get the correct form to you. It is helpful if you include a phone number so we can verify information if needed, but not mandatory.

Once you apply, your application is good until January 1st of the next year. All voters that vote by mail need to reapply once a year, preferably in January. We will accept your application anytime, but there are deadlines before each election.

Is voting by mail safe? Will my vote be counted? The answers to those questions are “Yes” and “Maybe.” In Texas, we document your application to vote by mail, we document the date your ballot was mailed, we document the date it was received, and we document the date it was reviewed by the Early Voting Ballot Board. All of this documentation is submitted to the state as well. While there has been discussion regarding the inclusion of the United States Postal Service in the tracking of these ballots, we are already doing all of that. Adding another layer to the process probably isn’t going to help and may even slow the process down. This may be needed in other states, but not here.

Will your vote be counted? The answer is almost always. If there is a problem with your ballot, we will reach out and give the voter the opportunity to correct it. The most common problem is lack of ID information or forgot to include signature. We do everything we can to correct this. After that, our next problem is that the Elections Administration didn’t get your ballot in a timely manner.

We encourage those that vote by mail to return the ballot as soon as possible. If you can mail it in Bonham that may take several days off the delivery time as well. The smaller post offices sometimes end up having their mail sent to the larger distribution centers before coming back to the county. Your ballot must be in our hands not later than 5:00 PM on the day after the election to be counted.

The Fannin County Elections Administration would like to express our deep appreciation for the service we receive from our local post office. They go above and beyond the call of duty (and have even been known to make additional deliveries) to get ballots to our office. We know not all counties have this kind of working relationship with the local post office. We are extremely grateful that we do!

Should voting by mail be abolished? There are lots of opinions out there, but here are some things to consider. Many of our military members vote by mail. These people are willing to die to protect our freedom and our right to vote.

Should college students or people who are temporarily working outside of Texas but maintain a Texas residence be allowed to vote by mail?

What about states like Alaska? Not everyone gets to enjoy Texas weather! Getting to the polls there is often difficult.

Now let’s get personal for a moment. I have a younger sister who is disabled. Over the years, she has lost most of her vision, can no longer drive, has had a kidney transplant which impacted her immune system, and is occasionally hospitalized. Over the years she has lost many of her abilities and freedoms, but she still has the right to vote and participate in the democratic process. If she is able, she goes to the polls during early voting and surrenders her ballot by mail. If she isn’t able to physically go, she mails in her ballot. Getting her ballot early also gives her time to research the candidates and issues.

I don’t believe people like my sister should be told they can’t vote if they can’t get to the polls. She is a citizen and her opinion and her vote should still count. Never forget that many of our disabled citizens became disabled defending our rights.

In Fannin County, we will mail out over 400 ballots for the upcoming November election. At the local level, it is enough to impact the outcome of some races. These are people that have a vested interest in what happens at the local, state, and national level. We believe their votes should count and we will continue to do everything we can to make sure their votes count, while continuing to ensure the integrity of our elections.

The goal of the Fannin County Elections Administration is to never turn away a registered voter that resides in our county.