You Have Until October 5. One of the Races You Will Find There Sets the Value of Your House.

The last day to register to vote in the November 3 election is Monday, October 5. That is the Secretary of State's date and it is not flexible. Texas requires registration by the thirtieth day before an election, counted from either the postmark or the day the application lands at the voter registrar's office.

Four other dates go with it. Early voting by personal appearance starts Monday, October 19 and ends Friday, October 30. The last day to apply for a ballot by mail is Friday, October 23. Election Day is Tuesday, November 3.

Those are the mechanics. The part worth a minute is what will be on the ballot.

The board that had never been elected before

Every county appraisal district in Texas has a board of directors. For most of the history of the system, those directors were chosen by the taxing units in the county, the cities and school districts and the rest, not by voters.

That changed for larger counties. In counties with a population of 75,000 or more, three directors are now elected countywide, running at-large by place: place 1, place 2, place 3. Montgomery County is well past that threshold.

The first of these elections ran on May 4, 2024, as a one-time start. Every election after that lands on the November general election in even-numbered years. This is that election, and all three of those seats are on it.

The directors chosen in 2024 hold office through December 31, 2026. If they want to keep the job, they have to run today's race and win it.

One more wrinkle, and it is a real one. The three directors elected in 2026 have to draw lots. One of them will serve a two-year term and the other two will serve four. After that the terms settle into four years across the board, staggered, beginning January 1 of odd-numbered years.

Why a homeowner should care about it

An appraisal district board does not set your tax rate. Your city, your school district, your county and your MUD do that, and the Standard has walked through those rates twice this summer.

What the district does is decide what your property is worth, which is the other half of the bill. The board of directors sits over that district. It adopts the district's budget and hires the chief appraiser. The appraisal review board, the panel that hears you when you protest a value, is appointed separately: in a county this size, by the local administrative district judge.

So the rate is one election and the value is another. Most people in Montgomery County have been voting in only one of them.

What the county has not posted yet

As of this week, the Montgomery County Elections page lists the November 3 joint election with the October 5 registration deadline and names the Montgomery Central Appraisal District among the entities holding an election. Under early voting and Election Day locations, it says information coming soon.

That is normal for early September and it is not a complaint. It does mean that anyone planning around a specific polling place should check again in October rather than assuming last cycle's location is still open.

Sample ballots for the county are posted at elections.mctx.org as they become available. The elections office is at 9159 Airport Road in Conroe, and the listed number is (936) 539-7843.

If you have moved

A registration follows an address, not a person. Anyone who bought into one of the new sections off 1488 or 1774 in the last year, or moved across a county line, is the most likely to find out in November that the record still shows the old place.

October 5 is the day that stops being fixable for this election. It is a Monday, five weeks out.