On a rainy Tuesday, the first day of early voting, 7,471 San Antonio residents cast votes in the mayoral and City Council runoff races, marking a 7% higher turnout than the first day of early voting for the May 6 general and bond election, when a total of 7,001 people turned out to vote.
Elections Administrator Jacquelyn Callanen stated that 7,741 people voted on the first day of early voting leading up to the June 2015 runoff, marking a slight decrease – of 270 voters – in first-day early voter turnout for this year’s runoff election. There are more than 1,049,400 registered voters in Bexar County, according to the Bexar County Elections website.
Voters are deciding whether to re-elect Mayor Ivy Taylor or replace her with Councilman Ron Nirenberg (D8) and selecting City Council representatives for districts 1, 2, 6, 8, 9, and 10. Early voting for the June 10 runoff election continues through Tuesday, June 6.
The Brookhollow Branch Library on the city’s Northside was the busiest Tuesday, with 784 votes cast at the location. Another Northside voting spot, the Cody Branch Library, was second with 722 ballots cast.
During early voting, citizens may vote at any polling site. On June 10, voters must vote at the assigned polling site for their precinct. For information on required identification when voting, click here.
Registered voters who did not vote in May can still cast a vote in the runoff election. Click here for more information about polling locations and hours. For a map, click here.
Less than five percentage points separated Taylor and Nirenberg in the first round of voting: Taylor received 42% of the vote while Nirenberg finished with 37%. Both candidates seek to win Bexar County Democratic Chairman Manuel Medina’s 15% share of the vote, which put him in third place among 14 candidates on May 6.
In the District 1 Council runoff, incumbent Roberto Treviño faces challenger Michael Montaño. Treviño, who was appointed to Council in 2014 and elected to a full term in 2015, claimed almost 49% of the vote. Montaño trailed with 32%. Treviño fell just 113 votes shy of winning the May 6 election outright in a field of six candidates.
District 2 Councilman Alan Warrick, who won 41% of the vote in May, is in a contentious race with William “Cruz” Shaw, the second-place finisher who received 29% of the vote. On Friday, Warrick passed out on a bench outside City Hall after drinking in a downtown bar, and Shaw called for his resignation from Council.
Candidates Greg Brockhouse and Melissa Cabello Havrda are hoping to secure the District 6 seat left open by outgoing Councilman Ray Lopez. Brockhouse got 36% of the vote in May, ahead of Havrda’s 21%.
In the fight for the District 8 seat Nirenberg is giving up, candidate Cynthia Brehm secured 33% of the vote with 3,716 votes and Manny Pelaez claimed 27% of the vote with 3,024 votes.
In District 9, Marco Barros and John Courage are hoping to win Joe Krier‘s seat. Krier chose not to seek re-election. Barros secured 3,616 votes, good for 24%, and Courage finished with 3,281, or 22%.
The candidates vying for the District 10 council seat, Ezra Johnson and Clayton Perry, were only 18 votes apart in the first round of voting: Johnson received 2,733 votes, good for 22% of the vote, versus Perry’s 2,715.
To read more about the election, check out the Rivard Report‘s 2017 election archive here.
