Dozens of candidates running for City Council and mayor filed into the council chambers early Monday morning to draw their positions on the May 3 ballot.

Of San Antonio’s 27 mayoral candidates, former Texas Secretary of State Rolando Pablos was randomly selected to appear first on the list of choices on the May 3 ballot.

Pablos wasn’t in attendance at Monday’s drawing and said he “was not concerned whether my name was first or last on the ballot.”

But given the large number of candidates running this year, experts say that where a candidate ranks on the ballot most certainly matters.

“Academic research shows that ballot placement does have an effect on the outcome of an election, but it can depend on a variety of things,” said San Antonio political strategist Laura Barberena, whose firm VIVA Politics is working for Councilman Manny Pelaez’s (D8) mayoral campaign, as well as several other City Council candidates.

“The larger the number of people that are on the ballot for a particular race, then ballot order becomes more significant,” she said.

Attendance at Monday’s drawing wasn’t required and didn’t offer any advantage to the candidates. Rather, the state-mandated drawing is intended to provide some transparency on how the randomized ballot order is created.

A multi-page mayoral ballot?

In the bustling council chambers Monday morning, candidates were called up in the order they’d filed to appear on the ballot.

For the mayor’s race that meant Councilwoman Adriana Rocha Garcia (D4), who was the first in line to file her candidacy last month, went first. She drew place 11 out of 27.

Among the very last names on the ballot will be Beto Altamirano, who drew slot number 23, and Melissa Cabello Havrda, who drew 25.

With such a large field, Barberena said there’s a chance some candidates’ names don’t fit on a single page — and could perhaps even stretch to a third.

If no candidate takes at least 50% of the vote on May 3, the top two finishers will advance to a June 7 runoff.

“In a race where 1, 2, or 3 percentage points could be the difference of you getting into a runoff, I think it just means everyone’s going to have to work harder to ensure that their name ID is up and that people know to go look for them when they go vote,” she said.

The most recent public polling on the mayoral field was conducted in September by UTSA, and indicated that 42.5% of respondents weren’t familiar with any of the candidates at that point. Fresh polling on all 27 candidates is expected to be released in the coming days.

On the May 3 municipal election ballot, the candidates will be listed in the following order. Incumbents are noted below, but will not be indicated on the ballot.

Mayor candidates — Open race

1. Rolando Pablos
2. Sonia Traut
3. Robert Melvin
4. Christopher Reyes
5. Jade McCullough
6. Brandon Gonzales
7. Tim Westley
8. Manny Pelaez
9. Bill Ruppel
10. Armando Dominguez
11. Adriana Rocha Garcia
12. Gina Ortiz Jones
13. Diana Flores Uriegas
14. Clayton Perry
15. John Courage
16. Christopher Herring
17. James “Jae” Melvin
18. Andrew Fernandez Vicencio
19. Gerardo Del Cristo Zambrano
20. Arturo Espinosa
21. April Guadarrama
22. Michael “Sam” Samaniego
23. Beto Altamirano
24. Robert Salinas
25. Melissa Cabello Havrda
26. Mauricio “Mau” Sanchez
27. Santos Alvarado

Council District 1 candidates

1. Julisa Medrano-Guerra
2. Matthew J Gauna
3. Sukh Kaur (Incumbent)
4. Ramiro Gonzales
5. Dominique “Domingo” Littwitz
6. Maureen Galindo
7. Susan Strawn
8. Anita Marie Kegley
9. Patty Gibbons
10. Arnulfo Ortiz

Council District 2 candidates

1. Sean Hanlin
2. Stephanie E Powell
3. Carla-Joy Sisco
4. Jalen McKee-Rodriguez (Incumbent)
5. Bryant Livingston
6. Kizzie D Thomas
7. Sonya Moore
8. Rose Requenez Hill

Council District 3 candidates

1. Kendra Wilkerson
2. Phyllis J Viagran (Incumbent)
3. Larry La Rose
4. Kenneth Thomas

Council District 4 candidates — Open race

1. Gregorio De La Paz
2. Ernest Arrellano
3. Johnathon Cruz
4. Jose “Pepe” Martinez
5. Edward Mungia

Council District 5 candidates

1. Pablo Arriaga III
2. Teri Castillo (Incumbent)
3. Raymond Zavala

Council District 6 candidates — Open race

1. Vanessa Chavez
2. Kelly Ann Gonzalez
3. Ric Galvan
4. “San” Carlos Antonio Raymond
5. Chris Baecker
6. Bobby Herrera
7. Gerald Lopez
8. Lawson Alaniz-Picasso

Council District 7 candidates

1. Marina Alderete Gavito (Incumbent)
2. Cynthia Lugo Alderete
3. Trinity Haddox

Council District 8 candidates — Open race

1. Sakib Shaikh
2. Cesario Garcia
3. Cindy Onyekwelu
4. Rodney “Rod” Kidd
5. Ivalis Meza Gonzalez
6. Paula McGee

Council District 9 candidates — Open race

1. Angi Taylor Aramburu
2. Emily Joy Garza
3. Daniel Mezza
4. Misty Spears
5. Celest N Tidwell
6. April Chang
7. Tristen Hoffman

Council District 10 candidates

1. Roy Anthony II
2. Marc Whyte (Incumbent)
3. Clint W Norton
4. Mark Duane O’Donnell
5. Eric Litaker