Bexar County voters have already cast more than half of a million ballots in the Nov. 3 election — breaking a local record for most early votes in a midterm election.
High voter interest comes as money has been pouring into San Antonio for an expensive U.S. Senate race, Texas governor’s race, and nationally targeted congressional contests in this area.
Early voting ended Friday evening with 527,641 total votes cast so far, or about 39% of the county’s 1.3 million registered voters.
That’s nearly as many people as participated in the entire 2022 election in Bexar County, but shy of the 576,639 early ballots cast in the 2024 presidential election.
Last week Elections Administrator Michele Carew said she thought Bexar County might surpass its 2024 presidential turnout — something that would be highly unusual, even in a fast-growing county.
Midterm elections typically draw about 50-55% voter participation, while presidential years draw more like 65-70%, said San Antonio political strategist Kelton Morgan.
The 2024 election was something of an outlier, however, in which only about 59% of the Bexar County voters participated, casting roughly 763,000 total votes.
Polls will be open once more from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. for Election Day on Tuesday, Nov. 3.
That’s when about 25-30% of the total votes are typically cast, said San Antonio political data analyst Bert Santibañez.
Bexar County voters can choose from any of these 302 Election Day polling centers.
Check live wait times to find the shortest lines, and download a copy of your sample ballot to prepare your selections ahead of time.
While turnout overall is up, Carew said the county saw fewer mail-in ballot requests than usual, as some voters experienced issues tracking them in recent elections.
“We have seen a decline in those who are requesting a [mail] ballot,” Carew told TPR’s The Source last week. “We were prepared to mail out upwards of 40,000, and we’ve only mailed out 32,000.”
The Elections Department said it had received about 24,000 completed mail ballots as of Friday, while 502,000 early votes were cast in-person.
Bexar County says it won’t release early results until everyone in line has voted
The busiest early voting location was a polling center on the fast-growing northwest side, located at Northwest Vista College.
Its in-person daily average is up 66% since 2022, Santibañez said. And this year it even saw more voters than the Brook Hollow Library, which has long been the county’s reigning champion.
View early vote counts by location here.
