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There will be around 57 early voting locations and 301 Election Day voting sites in Bexar County for the Nov. 3 election, according to Bexar County Elections Administrator Michele Carew, who briefed county commissioners this week on election preparedness.
Carew said those locations still have time to be tweaked base on public input.
Some are predicting a huge turnout locally, driven largely by the close races for Texas governor, between Republican incumbent Greg Abbott and Democratic nominee and State Representative Gina Hinojosa and in the U.S. Senate race between Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Democratic nominee, State Representative James Talarico.
Precinct 4 Bexar County Commissioner Tommy Calvert suggested turnout here to be 2.5 times larger than the local Mar. 3 primaries, which saw more than 291,000 votes hit the polls. Just doubling that turnout of the primaries would mean just under 600,000 voters could cast ballots this Nov. 3. The county has a total of around 1.3 million registered voters. To vote Nov. 3, voters must be registered 30 days before the election.
Early voting turnout for the Mar. 3 primaries was double the turnout of Election Day and that trend too should continue for the Nov. 3 election. Carew said 30,000 mail-in ballots are expected for the upcoming election.
Carew seemed confident in reaching all her preparation goals for the Nov. 3 election by Sept. 1, with systems testing to follow. She said 100% of election worker positions for early voting have been filled, while 57% of election worker positions have been filled. Carew said the rest of those positions should be filled by Oct. 1.
She did list additional positions she needs filled quickly to ramp up for Election Day.
"Four additional full-time voter registration processors, two mail room clerks, two additional liaisons ... and I'm in desperate need for an executive assistant," Carew said.
Carew thanked her election staff who have been putting in lots of overtime to prepare for the election. Lots of training sessions are ahead too for election workers.
She also touted the rollout of a new county election website on Sept. 1, which will include actual live wait times for each polling location, so voters can check to see where they can go to spend less time in line. Voters can vote at any polling site during early voting and on Election Day.
