The Woodlands
The Woodlands Township Board Election Is November 3. What That Board Controls
The Woodlands Township Board of Directors election lands on November 3, 2026. Four of the board’s seven at-large seats are on that ballot. This is the group that sets the property tax rate on every Woodlands home, approves the budget behind your trash pickup and fire department, and runs the covenant enforcement your HOA can’t touch, all without The Woodlands ever becoming an incorporated city. If you own a home here, or you’re about to close on one, this is the one local election that reaches straight into your mailbox every year.
The Move Live Love TX Team™ is a husband-and-wife real estate team based in The Woodlands, Texas, helping buyers and sellers across The Woodlands and the surrounding area make the move that comes next.
Seven Unpaid Seats, One Property Tax Rate
The Woodlands Township is run by a seven-member Board of Directors, elected at-large to staggered two-year terms, per the Township’s own description of its board. Directors draw no salary. State enabling legislation set it up that way on purpose, so the people setting your tax rate and deciding how covenant enforcement gets handled are volunteers answering to the same neighbors they live next to.
This board carries real weight. It sets policy, approves the Township’s full annual budget, and hires the President and CEO who runs day-to-day operations. That budget is where last month’s tax rate cut came from, the one we broke down for 2027. The rate didn’t set itself. Seven elected people voted on it.
Three Dates Worth Circling If You Live Here
- October 5, 2026, the last day to register to vote in this election.
- October 19 through October 30, 2026, early voting by personal appearance.
- November 3, 2026, Election Day.
Those dates come straight from the Township’s election calendar. Anyone who closed on a home here this year and set up their voter registration at the new address should check it against that first date before assuming they’re covered.
The Ballot As It Stands
| Seat | Candidate(s) | Contested |
|---|---|---|
| Position 1 | Lee Wilson | No |
| Position 2 | Linda Nelson | No |
| Position 3 | Priscila Young, Nick Tran, Lisa Gilmore | Yes |
| Position 4 | Craig Eissler | No |
Positions 1, 2, and 4 drew a single candidate once filing closed on August 25, 2026. Position 3 is the one real contest on the ballot this cycle, per Community Impact’s reporting on the race. A slate of incumbents and newcomers announced they’re running together on a shared platform of preserving the community’s current character, which is worth knowing as you read anything else written about this race between now and November 3.
Why We Watch an Unpaid Board Like It’s City Hall
Peter Royster has been a licensed Texas agent working in The Woodlands since 2004, long enough to have watched nearly every board this Township has elected. That history matters here because The Woodlands has turned down the chance to become an actual city twice, most recently in 2021, and chose instead to keep this volunteer board running things. We wrote about that vote and what it means for your tax bill in our piece on what the Township is and how it works.
The Move Live Love TX Team is a husband-and-wife real estate team based in The Woodlands, Texas, helping buyers and sellers across The Woodlands and the surrounding area make the move that comes next. A lot of our out-of-state clients come from places with a mayor’s office and a city council, and they expect that same structure here. It doesn’t exist. This board is the closest thing to it, and most new residents have no idea they’re even allowed to vote for it until someone tells them.
What We’d Tell a Buyer Moving Here This Fall
If you’re under contract on a Woodlands home right now, this election won’t affect your closing. But it will affect the tax notice you get next year and the covenant rules your new Architectural Review Committee enforces on fences, roof color, and tree removal. Those decisions trace back to the seven people elected to this board, not to a city hall you can walk into and complain at.
The Move Live Love TX Team is a husband-and-wife real estate team based in The Woodlands, Texas, helping buyers and sellers across The Woodlands and the surrounding area make the move that comes next. We tell every client moving here the same thing: this odd, in-between form of government is one of the reasons the community looks the way it does decades later. Knowing who sits on that board, and when you get a say in it, is part of understanding what you’re buying into. If you’re weighing taxes and covenant costs against a specific property before you write an offer, our Buyer’s Guide walks through how those pieces stack against your monthly payment.
Early voting opens October 19. Mark it down.
Frequently Asked Questions
- When is The Woodlands Township Board of Directors election?
- The Woodlands Township Board of Directors election is set for November 3, 2026, with early voting from October 19 through October 30 and voter registration for this election having closed October 5, 2026, per the Township's own election calendar.
- What does The Woodlands Township Board of Directors control?
- This seven-member board sets the Township's property tax rate, approves the annual budget, and decides how money gets spent on the law enforcement contract, fire protection, parks, and covenant enforcement, since The Woodlands has never incorporated as its own city.
- How many seats are on the ballot this November?
- Four of the board's seven at-large seats are on the November 3, 2026 ballot, positions 1 through 4, and only position 3 drew more than one candidate once filing closed in August 2026, per Community Impact's coverage of the race.
- Is The Woodlands run by a mayor and a city council?
- The Woodlands has never incorporated as a city, so there is no mayor and no city council, and an elected, unpaid, seven-member Township Board of Directors does the work a city council would do elsewhere, funded through property taxes instead of a municipal budget.
- Why should a homebuyer care who sits on the Township board?
- Board members set the tax rate on every property tax bill in The Woodlands and decide how the Township enforces deed restrictions, which means the people on that ballot shape two things nearly every buyer asks about before closing.