Lubbock County releases 2026 election results, explains delay

Lubbock County released final but unofficial results from the Nov. 3 election well after 6 a.m. Wednesday - hours after polls closed.

Troy Havard, Lubbock County's elections administrator, said the delayed release came following a discrepancy that prompted a recount for verification.

Why were Lubbock County election results delayed?

Specifically, Havard said a standard review and internal audit of results from the early voting site at 82nd Street and Boston Avenue (a United Supermarket) showed a difference between the number of people who checked in at the site and the number of ballots cast.

"The bottom line is that the number of ballots when we first read them in was different than the number of check ins (at the voting site)," he said.

By early Wednesday, Havard said the situation was still being investigated, but explained it's not unusual to have a slight difference between the number of voters who check in at a site and ballots that are cast there, noting sometimes people will forget to place their paper slip into the machine or other human errors.

He said the discrepancy in this particular case was large enough to warrant a manual recount - involving election officials manually feeding ballots into machines - and review to verify results. That process occurred in the county's secure elections office and could be reviewed by the public via web cameras through the county's website .

Havard released a statement Wednesday afternoon, elaborating on the issue at the 82nd Street voting site.

"This delay was the result of a combination of numbers that did not match up for one of our Early Voting locations," Havard shared in the statement. "This location previously had one of its Optical Scanners fail and had to be replaced due to the unreadable v-drives on which the votes are stored. Since there was no way to determine how the error occurred, the safest and most secure way to ensure that all the ballots cast at that location were correctly counted was to have Central Count re-scan each paper ballot cast at that location. This process is provided for under Texas Election Code Section 127.156 and ensured that every ballot cast at that location was accurately counted. Each of the 5,681 ballots were re-scanned and unofficial results were released when that process was completed. It is important to note that it is the duty of the Lubbock County Elections Office to ensure that every vote cast is counted accurately."

On top of that delay, the county also had announced in an email at 8:30 p.m. Tuesday that early voting results would be released later than normal as voters remained in line at Texas Tech's polling site.

Havard on Wednesday said the county also will process about 350 absentee ballots overall ahead of canvassing.

Lubbock County election day results

Here are the final but unofficial results from Lubbock County's elections.

District Courts:

137th Judicial District Judge

• Laura Beth Fossett (R) 73,049 votes 100%

237th Judicial District Judge

• Les Hatch (R) 73,118 100%

364th Judicial District Judge

• Billy Eichman (R) 72,511 100%

Criminal District Attorney Lubbock County

• K. Sunshine Stanek (R) 72,629 100%

County Courts

Lubbock County Judge

• Curtis Parrish (R) 69,634 100%

Lubbock County Court at Law No. 1 Judge

• Mark Hocker (R) 72,411 100%

Lubbock County Court at Law No. 2

• Tom Brummett (R) 72,026 100%

Lubbock County Court at Law No. 3

• Ben Webb (R) 71,876 100%

District Clerk

• Sara L. Smith (R) 72.137 100%

Lubbock County Clerk

• Sandy Garcia (R) 63,638 63.71%

• Kerri Poeling Padilla (D) 36,245 36.29%

County Treasurer

• Chris Winn (R) 72,178 100%

Commissioner's Courts

County Commissioner, Precinct No. 2

• Kevin Pounds (R) 17,580 100%

County Commissioner, Precinct No. 4

• Jordan Rackler (R) 16,614 100%

Justices of the Peace

Justice of the Peace, Precinct No.1

• Jeff Fisher (R) 30,213 100%

Justice of the Peace, Precinct No. 2

• Susan Rowley (R) 15,253 62.37%

• Nellie Hopson (D) 9,203 37.63%

Justice of the Peace, Precinct No. 3

• Traci Baxa (R) 5,573 40.07%

• Marina Garcia (D) 8,335 59.93%

Justice of the Peace, Precinct No. 4

• Lance Cansino (R) 6,593 100.00%

Lubbock Central Appraisal District

Lubbock Central Appraisal District Director At-Large, Place 1

• Scott M. Dinger 44,418 59.62%

• Micah O'Hair 30,090 40.38%

Lubbock Central Appraisal District Director At-Large, Place 2

• Jacky Howard 52,704 73.58%

• Garret Carmouche 18,923 26.42%

Lubbock Central Appraisal District Director At-Large, Place 3

• Jon Bruegel 32,122 45.23%

• Tom Keisling 38,893 54.77%

Lubbock County Water Control and Improvement District

LCWCID Director, Precinct 1

• Michael Damron 8,351 32.60%

• Kristy Doss 7,692 30.03%

• Rob "Doc" McGuire 4,200 16.40%

• Gary Satterwhite 5,373 20.98%

LCWCID Director, Precinct 4

• Teresa Stephens 11,265 67.11%

• Debra Sue Pena 5,522 32.89%

LCWCID Director, At-Large

• Greg Thornton 43,959 63.93%

• Casey Klingensmith 24,801 36.07%

School District propositions

Lorenzo Independent School District, Proposition A

• For 7 21.88%

• Against 25 78.13%

Lorenzo Independent School District, Proposition B

• For 7 21.21%

• Against 26 78.79%

Lorenzo Independent School District, VATRE Proposition A

• For 10 32.26%

• Against 21 67.74%

Lubbock-Cooper Independent School District, VATRE Proposition A

• For 7,573 40.08%

• Against 11,322 59.92%

This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Lubbock County releases 2026 election results, explains delay