Originally published October 20, 2026. This report reflects the information available that day.

UPDATE, 4:27 p.m. CT, Oct. 20, 2026: Hood County Judge-elect Mark Lowery says a Granbury official told him the city removed the signs after an anonymous complaint.

Lowery went to Granbury City Hall around lunchtime Tuesday, he said, and spoke with Eric Swaim, the city's director of building and permitting. Swaim told him the city had received an anonymous complaint about the signs, which Swaim described as "snipe signs" in a city easement that were removed under a city ordinance.

Lowery said Swaim did not know the exact ordinance at the time, did not define a snipe sign and could not explain why other candidates' signs closer to the road were left in place. Swaim offered to provide the ordinance language later Tuesday, according to Lowery.

Lowery paid a $10 fee for each sign, he said. The city's fee schedule lists a $50 fee to return an illegally placed sign on a first offense and says political campaign signs "during appropriate seasons are exempt."

Lowery said he did not place the signs in the easement and plans to put them back at the location, outside the easement. Hood County Express has not independently confirmed his account.

Granbury's zoning ordinance prohibits snipe signs and defines them as signs "tacked, nailed, posted, pasted, glued or otherwise attached to trees, poles, fences, or other objects" whose message does not apply to the use of the premises where they stand.

Hood County Express emailed City Communications Manager Jeff Newpher questions about the signs Tuesday morning, with a copy to Swaim. Newpher directed HCE to the city's open records request process and did not answer the questions.

The removal happened Monday, Oct. 19, which Hood County Elections Administration and the Texas secretary of state's office list as the first day of early voting for the Nov. 3 election. Hood County acknowledged in an email Tuesday that it received HCE's public information request for Annex 1 exterior camera footage. The county has not released the footage, and Hood County Express has not reviewed it.

THE STORY SO FAR

GRANBURY — City of Granbury code enforcement workers removed political signs Monday afternoon from what two sources describe as private property across West Pearl Street from Hood County Annex 1, where early voting is underway. Campaign signs closer to the road were left in place, Lowery said, raising questions about whether the city enforced its sign rules evenly.

A source said three people in a truck took the signs between about 4:05 and 4:25 p.m. CT Oct. 19. According to the source, the signs were on private property, not county property.

In a statement Tuesday, another source gave a similar account. Janet Logsdon is running against Council Member Gary "Skip" Overdier for Granbury City Council Place 4 in the Nov. 3 election.

According to that statement, a private citizen made the signs. The second source later corrected the statement, saying the source did not see Chris Coffman's truck near Overdier through 5 p.m. Coffman is Granbury's city manager.

In a phone call Tuesday, the second source gave more detail. According to that source, a city code compliance vehicle drove past the back of a parking lot at Annex 1 at 4:15 p.m. CT, went through the justice center parking lot and came back around, and at 4:17 p.m. CT workers pulled all five signs.

Hood County Express will update this story as records are released.