precinct chair – Carol A. Spencer

Election Integrity: Highest Priority

For many elections, I have served as presiding judge of the Early Voting Ballot Board, Signature Verification Committee and Central Count. This position is critical to the validity of our elections. (These committees are described below.)

I filed to run for Republican Precinct Chair in my precinct, 1008. A few weeks later, so did someone else. That made it a contested race. Contested candidates cannot serve as the presiding judge of these committees. So, I had a choice: continue to serve as presiding judge or run for precinct chair.

I chose election integrity and serving as presiding judge.

Below is the letter I sent to Justin Bezner, Bastrop County GOP Chair. I have withdrawn my name from the ballot. As I said in my letter, there are many ways to serve the Republican Party. I’ll continue my involvement through the Lost Pines Republican Women, the Bastrop County GOP Club, and when called upon, through the BCRP.

What’s the “Early Voting Ballot Board” and “Signature Verification Committee”? What’s “Central Count”?

These are two groups, made up of an equal number of Republicans and Democrats, that are critical to ensuring election integrity.

Early Voting Ballot Board
An early voting ballot board (EVBB) shall be created in each election to process early voting results from the territory served by the early voting clerk. No matter what type of election an entity is having, they must have an early voting ballot board.

In Bastrop County, the EVBB also typically serves as the Signature Verification Committee, ensuring that a ballot signature matches the application. This is a critical function for election integrity.

Central Counting Station
A central counting station (“CCS”) is the place on election night where ballots are counted, vote totals are accumulated, precinct returns are completed and the unofficial elections results are generated.

Running for Precinct Chair

Ready to Serve Republicans in Precinct 1008

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 23, 2025
Contact: Carol A. Spencer
RepublicanCarol@gmail.com

Carol A. Spencer Republican Carol Spencer has filed for a place on the ballot in the March 2026 primary to serve as Precinct Chair in Bastrop County (TX) Precinct 1008. Spencer is currently president of the Bastrop County GOP Club. She served as a Bastrop County precinct chair from 2018 – 2022. She is a founder and past-president of the Lost Pines Republican Women. And in 2023, she was named a Texas Federation of Republican Women “Ten Outstanding”, representing the best of the best Texas Republican women.

Believing strongly in the necessity of communicating with the grassroots, Spencer started a newsletter for her precinct and later continued that communications via RepublicanCarol.org. She spearheaded a joint project, The Bastrop County Voters Guide, with the Republican Party. This guide is mailed head-of-household to all Republican households in Bastrop County. This guide contributed to Republican sweeps in each of the last two election cycles.

“Conservative values, Texas values, are the core of my political positions. I’ve brought those core values to everything I’ve done. I’ve worked hard for 35+ years for open government, smaller government, lower taxes, and operational efficiency”, Spencer stated. “My record is solid and with the votes of Republicans in Precinct 1008, I’ll continue those efforts on their behalf.”

Currently serving as Presiding Judge of the Early Voting Ballot Board (EVBB) and Central Count, Spencer is dedicated to ensuring election integrity in Bastrop County. She’s held this position for numerous elections, overseeing mail-in ballot and result count accuracy.

Spencer, a web designer by profession, created her RepublicanCarol.org blog. She designed and manages content for the websites of the Lost Pines Republican Women and the Bastrop County GOP Club. She previously authored the Bastrop County Republican Party website.

Spencer will appear on the ballots of those in Precinct 1008 in the March 3, 2026 Republican primary.

Carol Spencer can be reached via email at RepublicanCarol@gmail.com, on X (formerly Twitter) as @RepublicanCarol, on Gettr as ChazTX, on Facebook at FB.com/RepublicanCarol.

Thin Skinned

Politics is not for the faint-of-heart. Anyone who has run for office, or served in office, knows that. We’re all very opinionated and most of us, passionately so. Those who don’t agree with their representatives often come out with guns blazing (not literally, just verbally). It’s just the way it is. The elected official can engage in the gun-fire with nasty retorts, or step back and invite discussion. What the elected official cannot be is thin-skinned and defensive.

Sadly, our current House member, Stan Gerdes, has demonstrated that he is both thin-skinned and defensive. In 2022, he was asked at multiple GOP meetings whether he supported Dems as committee chairs in the Texas House. Notwithstanding Republicans being strongly in the majority, he supported Dem chairs (video at 6:13). Those of us who worked hard to get Republicans elected felt betrayed. And, we told him so.

In 2024, we’ve again said “No Dem Chairs” and once again, he is supporting a House Speaker who lost the Republican Caucus vote and who will appoint Dem chairs.

Republican committee chairs are critical to passing TexasGOP legislative priority bills. This is important enough that the TexasGOP sent a mailer to Bastrop County Republicans asking them to call Gerdes’ office and “tell him to oppose Dustin Burrows and support the Texas House GOP Caucus Nominee David Cook!”

Then, the Bastrop County GOP passed a resolution calling “on Representative Stan Gerdes to publicly commit to supporting the Texas House Republican Caucus nominee in accordance with the Caucus vote and with the Republican Party of Texas Platform”. Seems reasonable.

That resolution also explained that:

“A vote against the Texas House Republican Caucus nominee shall be considered a censurable act”; and
“subversive tactics such as denying a quorum or participating (sic) in absenteeism that causes a quorum to come into question […] shall be considered a censurable act”; and
“a vote for a House Speaker secret floor ballot vote, will be interpreted as an attempt to hide a vote with Democrats who want Democrat Chairs […] and shall be considered a censurable act”; and
“a vote […] for any other candidate who has not pledged publicly, prior to the floor vote, to comply with the Legislative Priorities of “No Democrat Chairs” shall constitute a censurable act.”

Stan Gerdes was not censured. The elected Republican precinct chairs simply expressed their opinions and what they expected from their Republican House member.

Precinct chairs are elected to be the voice of the Republican Party. Gerdes was elected to represent House District 17. These are very different constituencies.

Gerdes can stick to his position supporting Democrat chairs and do what he believes is in the best interest of his constituents. But, as with every decision an elected official makes, there are consequences to those decisions. And, the Bastrop County Republican Party has made clear what those consequences will be. Seems reasonable.

Rather than throw verbal bombs on Facebook at Republican Party leadership, a mature, seasoned elected official would either invite precinct chairs to a meeting or personally call each one, building bridges. He would not whine because he wasn’t invited to the meeting where the resolution was passed. He would not call candidates who ran against him three years ago “vengeful”. He wouldn’t worry about a candidate that spent under $20,000 in a campaign cycle when he, himself, spent over half a million. He would not call the Republican Chair a liar. He would not send threatening texts. He would not make unfounded accusations and name-call publicly on social media.

I sure as heck hope this isn’t the way he treats his fellow legislators when they disagree with him. And, if, as I hear repeatedly, Stan Gerdes wants to run for Congress or some other higher office, he needs to get thicker skin. He needs to immediately start building bridges not burning them down.

Do Your Job

To quote Bill Belichick, NE Patriots coach, for a team to win, players must “do your job”. The same applies to precinct chairs.

Precinct chairs are elected by the Republicans in their precincts. Do voting Republicans elect precinct chairs to do their job or just hold the title?

Having been a precinct chair, I know that rarely do they get the opportunity to choose our Republican candidate. They have that opportunity on Saturday.

There are four candidates for the position of Republican candidate for State Board of Ed in District 5, Bastrop County’s district: David Doman of Travis County, Robert Westbrook of Guadalupe County, Perla Hopkins of Travis County, James Dickey of Travis County. Yet, only two (out of 26) Bastrop County precinct chairs were named as participants on the Zoom candidate forum Wednesday night. (The GOP chair also attended.) Two out of 26!

The vote to replace Mark Loewe, who unfortunately passed away after winning the primary, is tomorrow, Saturday August 6 from noon to 3 p.m. at Pinballz Lake Creek, 13729 Research Blvd., Austin.

If Bastrop County precinct chairs don’t show up, they’ll have abrogated their role in choosing our Republican candidate for STATE Board of Education…. the people who set curriculum, who determine text books, who constitutionally are required to manage the Permanent School Fund.

(update 2:45) I’m excited to hear that the County Chair is calling all of them letting them know how important this is. That’s great. Hopefully, our Bastrop County precinct chairs will do their job!

What’s the Score?

The score is 14 – 7. We’re losing.

I’m not talking about football. I’m talking about social media and digital communication. The Bastrop County Democrat Party in December (so far) has posted twice as much as the Bastrop County Republican Party. And, they’re on both Instagram and Twitter.

Social media is the preferred communication method for all age groups. Entities must be in these spaces to connect with the public.

The Republican Party website is out of date. The Election Information page showed Nov 4 ballot info as recently as Saturday, December 7. The cutoff date for filing to run for office was December 9. Until mid-day December 8, not one word was on the website about how to do so.

Silence about the new precinct created in Bastrop County last month even though it affects more than 2,000 voters. Nothing about how to register to vote, yet that’s the top priority for TexasGOP. And, the news page’s last article is from June 2, 2018! Its subject? A joint event with the Democrats.

Twitter? The last tweet from the Bastrop County Republican Party was April 25. The Democrats? December 3.

Instagram? (70% of 18 – 29 year olds use Instagram)
The Republican Party doesn’t even have an account. The Democrats last post? November 25.

YouTube? (90% of 18 – 49 year olds use YouTube)
The Republican Party doesn’t even have an account.

“You’re a digital communications expert and a precinct chair. Why don’t you volunteer to fix this,” you might ask. I have. The chair refused my offer. It’s one thing to lose a football game because of poor communication. It’s quite another to lose elections for that reason.

Leave ALL signs alone. Don’t trespass. Don’t steal.

A few days ago, some Democrat signs in Tahitian Village were apparently destroyed by someone driving through the neighborhood. This prompted a post on the Republican Party’s Facebook page condemning the action and forcefully stating that when the perpetrators are found, they’ll be turned over to the authorities. Because the signs were on Democrat properties, the Bastrop County Young Republicans went so far as to blame the Alt-Right for this wrong-doing.

It’s interesting to me that these two Republican organizations have been silent in the face of trespass and sign theft of Republican signs. Not a peep out of either organization as Cruz signs have been stolen from private property in more than a few cases. Perhaps they didn’t know, you say. Well, maybe, but that’s really hard to believe in the face of property owner reactions, some like the one at left.

It is inappropriate to point fingers at anyone, call out any group without proof, laser focus on only one instance of this type of behavior when it’s happening across the county to all sides.

No one should trespass on private property to remove or destroy anything, including political signs. It doesn’t matter what candidate from what party a person is supporting, they have a right to display signs supporting that individual or party. TXDOT regulations require signs to be on private property so anyone taking or damaging a sign is violating trespass and destruction of personal property laws.

Business Continuity or Outright Coup

I ask you: do you know one successful corporation that is lead by a steering committee without a powerful executive at the helm? (And let’s face it, political parties ARE corporations.)

Think GE under Jack Welsh, a company that now, under weak leadership, has lost its place on the Dow. Think JP Morgan Chase under Jamie Dimon. Study the difference in IBM under Lou Gerstner and Jack Akers. Remember Chrysler under Lee Iococca? Apple – Steve Jobs. Microsoft – Bill Gates. I could go on naming recognizable corporate names.

Yet, in Republican political organizations the recent push seems to be to overthrow strong, successful leaders, allegedly to “empower the grassroots”, to change a top-down organization to a bottom-up organization, implementing a weaker committee leadership style instead of a strong chief executive.

First, it was Travis County which created the roadmap on how to emasculate a county chair. Using the same technique of bylaw modification, Bastrop County, Montgomery County, Galveston County followed suit. At a minimum, these four counties have seen controlling interests among Republican precinct chairs completely strip the duly elected county chairs of their power. Only time will tell how successful this move is in growing the Party, getting out the vote and Keeping Texas Red, but I have my doubts.

Business continuity planning or outright coup? What’s the best way to manage an organization, to successfully move it forward? In my opinion, these people would do better to recognize the accomplishments of their predessors, learn from them, get experience in all facets of life (including life outside the political world), determine the appropriate management style for success, and then make their mark on the future of the Republican Party by appropriately modifying bylaws. Doing so would ensure Texas’ red status for years to come. But a coup, just because the votes are there, is not the quick fix they anticipate it will be.