Bexar County's Election Administrator Jacque Callanen predicted a strong turnout on Election Day on Tuesday.
"I think we should hit ... 160,000 on Election Day. That's what we're hoping for." she said.
The polls are open at 302 voting locations from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Tuesday. Voters may vote at any one of them.
Callanen said long lines are expected, and poll workers will place voters in as many air-conditioned halls at voting sites as they can. A bottle of water or umbrella for shade is also suggested. It will be in the 60s and cloudy in the morning, but in the 70s and mostly sunny by the afternoon.
The elections administrator recommended voters study a sample ballot online before voting to reduce waiting times for themselves and other voters.
Callanen said ballots, especially the one with the six amendments to the San Antonio City Charter, can take more than five minutes to read through.
A physical I.D. must be presented—but not one on a smart phone because the use of cell phones and electronics is not allowed in voting lines.
"We have to tell them [voters] we cannot accept that," she said. "We have to see the hard copy, so we send them back to their cars and, if we have to do that, we're allowing them to go back in. They don't have to get to the back of the line again."
No campaign paraphernalia or talk of political preferences is permitted in voting lines, according to state election codes. Election workers have asked voters to remove or cover up paraphernalia this election. One man was arrested last week after he allegedly punched an election worker who told him to take off his MAGA hat.
Callanen said 575,000 ballots were cast early — about 46.9% of the county's nearly 1.3 million registered voters. As of Monday, 32,000 mail-in ballots had been received to be counted with another 19,000 still expected to come in.
Mail-in ballots must be postmarked by 7 p.m. with Tuesday's date and are still permitted to be counted if they arrive at the county's election headquarters by 5 p.m. on Wednesday. Ballots arriving after that time are not counted. That does not include provisional ballots.
Callanen said early voting and mail-in ballot results will be posted shortly after the polls close at 7 p.m. on Tuesday.
The Election Day vote data from the 302 polling sites is tabulated at the Elections Department headquarters downtown.
The first batch of election ballots is expected to be tabulated and released around 8 p.m. Callanen said her department thereafter tries to release votes to the public and media in 10% counted increments through the course of the night until all votes are counted.
She said she believed the final election results will not be released until after midnight because of the high turnout of voters.
Callanen thanked her election workers and urged voters to do the same on Tuesday. She said some voters have even brought some baked treats for election workers who she said put in 70-hour work weeks (or longer) during early voting.
