Existing Texas Peanut Producers Board directors Scotty Koonce, Larry Don Womack, James Martin and Ted Higginbottom were re-elected to the board after the TPPB's canvassing committee met Jan. 25 at the TPPB headquarters in Lubbock to count the ballots.

It was the seventh statewide election since Texas Peanut Producers Board became a statewide entity in 1969.

The four new board members will be sworn in on March 25, 2008 during TPPB's quarterly board meeting in Lubbock by a Texas Department of Agriculture representative. Each person elected will serve a six-year term, or until the year 2014.

Prior to the elections, TPPB had divided the state into five separate "Voting Regions" so board members would more closely represent the peanut interests of a particular region of the state and all Texas peanut producers would have representation on the Board. As there are 12 board seats on the TPPB, the voting regions are designed for each seat to represent 1/12th of the total peanut production in Texas as reported by the Texas Crop Reporting Service.

The voting regions are approved through the Texas Department of Agriculture.

Winning the two seats in Voting Region One, which consists of Aransas, Austin, Bandera, Bastrop, Bell, Blanco, Brazoria, Brazos, Brewster, Brown, Burleson, Burnet, Callahan, Caldwell, Chambers, Colorado, Coke, Coleman, Comal, Comanche, Concho, Coryell, Crane, Crockett, Culberson, Eastland, Edwards, El Paso, Falls, Fayette, Fort Bend, Galveston, Gillespie, Grimes, Hamilton, Hardin, Harris, Hays, Hudspeth, Irion, Jasper, Jefferson, Jeff Davis, Kendall, Kerr, Kimble, Kinney, Lampasas, Lee, Liberty, Llano, Madison, Mason, Matagorda, McCulloch, Menard, Milam, Mills, Montgomery, Newton, Orange, Pecos, Presidio, Polk, Reagan, Real, Reeves, Robertson, Runnels, San Jacinto, San Saba, Schleicher, Sutton, Taylor, Terrell, Tom Green, Travis, Tyler, Upton, Uvalde, Val Verde, Walker, Waller, Ward, Williamson, Washington and Wharton counties, were Scotty Koonce of DeLeon and Larry Don Womack of DeLeon.

Winning the seat in Voting Region Two, which consists of Armstrong, Borden, Briscoe, Carson, Castro, Childress, Collingsworth, Cottle, Crosby, Dawson, Dickens, Donley, Fisher, Floyd, Garza, Glasscock, Gray, Hale, Hall, Hansford, Hemphill, Hockley, Howard, Hutchinson, Kent, King, Lamb, Lipscomb, Lubbock, Lynn, Martin, Midland, Mitchell, Moore, Motley, Nolan, Ochiltree, Potter, Randall, Roberts, Scurry, Sherman, Sterling, Stonewall, Swisher, Terry and Wheeler counties, was James Martin of Brownfield.

Winning the seat in Voting Region Five, which consists of Andrews, Bailey, Cochran, Dallam, Deaf Smith, Ector, Gaines, Hartley, Loving, Oldham, Parmer, Winkler and Yoakum counties, was Ted Higginbottom of Seminole.

Press releases and legal notices on the election were sent to all major newspapers in the state where elections were to occur. The voting period was from December 31, 2007 to January 14, 2008.

The next election will be in the spring of 2010 with four seats up for election.