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Up to 75,000 voters may turn out at the polls on Tuesday, according to Bexar County Elections Administrator Michele Carew.
Carew said that's on top of the 148,077 voters who cast ballots during the early voting period from Oct. 20 through Halloween. She also said that 143,504 votes were cast in person, while 4,573 were mailed in during early voting.
Carew said the early voting totals amounted to an 11% turnout of the county's 1.3 million registered voters. She said that number surpasses the early voting participation in a similar election held in 2023. She said the turnout has largely been driven by voter interest in Propositions A & B.
Voters will be asked on Tuesday to approve those props so hundreds-of-millions of dollars from a venue tax, paid mostly by tourists, can be spent to make over the grounds of the San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo and move the Spurs into a new downtown arena.
Recent polling has suggested the props elections will be very close.
The elections administrator said a well-prepared voter can speed through the election process tomorrow.
"The process has been very fast," Carew said, based on reports to her office during early voting. "Some of our voters are saying they are in and out in five minutes."
Carew said the process is also sped up by the deployment of more iPads at polling sites, allowing election workers to verify voter identities faster and print up ballots faster too.
She said a voter should study a sample ballot in advance before heading to the polls to decide how they will vote. Carew said that can be done at bexar.org/elections. She also said everyone should arrive with the proper government I.D. to vote.
Voters will not be allowed to enter a polling place if they are wearing any sort of Spurs or rodeo-related t-shirts or other paraphernalia, Carew said. It's considered a form of electioneering.
She said such a ban also applies to school related t-shirts, such as sports jerseys and other paraphernalia, if polling sites within that school district are holding a tax rate election.
