Election 2019: A Voting Guide for Bexar County

Municipal and school board elections take place Saturday in San Antonio, Leon Valley, Windcrest and other cities in Bexar County.

Tune in at 8 p.m. for live coverage of the races, candidates and issues from the TPR newsroom. Leave us a voicemail about your voting experience at (210) 615-8982. Your comments may go to air.

Here's a Q&A, profiles and special reports to prepare you before you vote.

You can also follow our reporters as they tweet from the studio and from the field:

• Camille Phillips is following the school board elections.
• Brian Kirkpatrick is following the Greg Brockhouse campaign.
• Joey Palacios is following the Ron Nirenberg campaign.
• Paul Flahive is following San Antonio's city council races.
• Jack Morgan checked in with voters and monitored election day turnout throughout the day.

Residents in Bexar County will cast ballots for various mayoral and council positions in incorporated cities and positions on boards in numerous school districts. Runoffs are expected.

In the City of San Antonio, voters will choose the mayor and all ten council members. San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg and Councilman Greg Brockhouse, his leading challenger, have debated each other several times, including on TPR's "The Source."

Learn more about the other mayoral candidates here.

Balcones Heights, Castle Hills, Elmendorf, Helotes, Hollywood Park, Kirby, Leon Valley, Olmos Park, Shavano Park, Somerset and Universal City will also see mayor and council races.

Voters living in Bexar County Emergency Services District 8 will vote in a special election on a proposition to adopt a local sales & use tax. Residents of Helotes, Kirby, and Shavano Park are also voting on similar propositions.

Voters in Windcrest have 14 propositions on their ballot Saturday.

Examine a sample ballot listing the races and candidates here.

Nine candidates are running for three seats on the San Antonio ISD board. The teachers union endorsed three of those candidates. The union hopes to replace trustees who voted to allow outside nonprofits run 22 of the district’s schools. The candidates for District 5 recently debated on "The Source."

Southside has four competitive races, even though its elected board isn’t currently in power. The state took over the district in 2017.

Harlandale could soon be in the same boat. Its board is under investigation by the Texas Education Agency. All three open board seats have multiple candidates despite the potential takeover. Ricardo Moreno is the only incumbent running for reelection.

The Alamo Heights, Judson and Northside school districts will also hold trustee elections.

Nearly 67,000 people countywide cast a ballot by the time early voting closed on Tuesday, April 30.

Bexar County Elections Administrator Jacque Callanen said that was a small decrease from the last municipal and mayoral election.

“When we look at 2017 and what we finished last night, we’re about 2,100 votes behind the early voting in-person votes from 2017,” she said.

Brookhollow Library on the north side of town saw the most traffic, with nearly 6,000 votes at that location alone. The Elmendorf City Hall polling site saw the least amount of activity, with just 87 voters during the early voting period.

Forty-five percent of this year’s early voters were age 65 and over. Early voters age 34 and younger only made up seven and a half percent of ballots cast. There were only 500 votes under cast by people between the ages of 18 and 20.

You can check your registration information here.

Election Day is Saturday, May 4.

Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Find your own polling place and more information at the Bexar County Elections Department's website.

Valid identification must be presented to vote in Texas. Proper forms of identification include: 

• Texas driver license
• Texas Election Identification Certificate
• Texas personal identification card
• Texas concealed handgun license
• U.S. military identification card (with photo)
• U.S. citizenship certificate (with photo)
• U.S. passport

If you don't have a valid ID, bring:

• Copy or original of a government document that shows the voter’s name and an address, including the voter’s voter registration certificate. 
• Copy of or original current utility bill.
• Copy of or original bank statement.
• Copy of or original government check.
• Copy of or original paycheck.
• Copy of or original of a U.S. state or territory birth certificate or a document confirming birth admissible in a court of law, which establishes the voter’s identity, which may include a foreign birth document.

After presenting a supporting form of ID, you’ll have to sign a Reasonable Impediment Declaration. Learn more about that voter ID.