Several members of the Burnet County Republican Party, including its party chair, have come forward and publicly questioned the handling of the primary elections this past March. County officials claimed they were mostly unaware of the specific issues brought up by the party members, and that they could be addressed at a later date. 

The concerns of the party members ranged from alleged missing ballots to improper procedure from previous Burnet County Elections Administrator, Mike Evans, who resigned shortly after the March primary with just a few months on the job. 

Burnet County Republican Party Chair Tammy Hullum came before the Burnet County Commissioners Court during a special meeting on Monday, Aug. 17, and read aloud from a prepared statement, listing her concerns about the March 2026 primary elections and how they were handled by the county’s previous elections administrator. She was joined by other members of the party that shared similar views. 

Due to the length and number of the public comments on the subject during the Aug. 17 meeting, DailyTrib has only included quotes and excerpts from key players like county officials, the Burnet County Republican Party chair, and choice other party members that provided prepared statements. Watch and listen to the entire meeting online at this link: Special Session of Commissioner Court August 17, 2026

“I requested the required records from the (elections administrator), and they were not provided,” Hullum said. “I have not received the sealed official returns. Results were entered, revised, and treated as final in (the Texas Election Administration Management System). I did not canvass the March 2026 primary election. I do not know who canvassed the county primary election.”

Hullum was referring to her party’s primary election, which included the local races for Burnet County judge and Burnet County Precinct 2 commissioner. The local party is responsible for handling its own primary, but contracted with Burnet County to administer the election. According to Hullum, she did not feel comfortable “canvassing” the election, meaning the official counting, computing, and tallying of the votes reflected on the ballots. 

According to Hullum, she felt that multiple Texas election codes had not been satisfied during the election, including TEC 67.004, which lays out the requirements for delivery of sealed results from each voting precinct. 

DailyTrib reached out to Hullum for further comment regarding her specific concerns, but she did not wish to provide a response beyond, “I spoke of (issues with the election) on (two) public gatherings- the Republican Club meeting and the Republican Club Party meeting.”

Burnet County Judge Bryan Wilson, along with the other four members of the Commissioners Court, told DaillyTrib that they were not fully aware of the Republican Party’s specific concerns until Monday’s meeting, which was scheduled to cover a routine state-mandated approval to order the coming November 2026 general election. The court ultimately approved the order of the election to comply with state law.

Current Burnet County Elections Administrator Stephanie Cooper, who took office in July after the departure of Evans, said that the Monday meeting was the first time she had heard of any “anomalies” with the March election. 

“Today is the first time I’ve heard that there were anomalies,” she said during Monday’s meeting.

While no firm plans were made to address the Republican Party’s concerns regarding the March primary results, Cooper said she would be willing to dive into it at the direction of the court. 

“I do internal audits (of the election), I do public audits, which every single person in the public is invited to,” she said. “The public is invited and encouraged to do that. I expect to see people there, I expect people to actually be involved and understand how the process works. Feel free to come in and watch the system and how it works.”

Some members of the public had more pointed critiques, claiming that the March primary had hundreds of unaccounted-for votes and that the election was “compromised.”

Burnet County Republican Party member Reno Lamb, who also serves as an elected director of the Central Texas Groundwater Conservation District, shared his concerns in a prepared statement, stating that there were “537” missing ballots.

“There has been no investigation of which we know, no public explanation, and almost no public awareness of these issues,” he said. 

Lamb was referring to a prepared statement from another Burnet County Republican Party member, Claire Nybro, who claimed that county records showed 8,021 early-voting ballots while another source showed 7,484 voters checked in. 

Nybro requested that the court not approve the November election.

“Do not approve this (order) until the March primary is reconciled and the public gets straight answers about the 537-ballot discrepancy, the missing reconciliations, the provisional canvass, and every other serious allegation that still has no public explanation.”

dakota@thepicayune.com