Join the Rivard Report and 210 Podcast for an Election Night watch party on Tuesday, March 1. We’ll be camped out at Alamo Brewery‘s Beer Hall, giving you up-to-the-minute results of the Democratic and Republican primaries. We’ll also talk with candidates and political analysts about the hottest races and what’s ahead in the general election.
Looking to cast your ballot on Election Day before the polls close? Voting sites will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Tuesday. To find your Election Day voting site by street address, click here. To find your voting site by registration data, click here. Voters must show a valid photo ID to vote.
Admission to the Election Night watch party is free, and the doors open at 6:30 p.m. The early-voting results will come in shortly after 7 p.m. And don’t worry, you won’t go hungry – The Box Street Social food truck will be parked outside.
We will, of course, record the podcast for posterity. See you Tuesday night.
From previous election coverage by Robert Rivard:
A heated state Senate race with both Democratic candidates spending big and going negative, and an intensifying Republican presidential primary race fueled a strong early voter turnout in Bexar County on Thursday with voters experiencing actual waiting lines at poll sites in the afternoon. Eleven days of early voting closed Friday at 8 p.m.
How many of the county’s 977,730 registered voters are expected to vote in this presidential primary season? If early voting trends follow tradition, the answer is less than those that voted in 2008 when Barack Obama first ran for the Democratic presidential nomination, and more than in 2012 when he ran for re-election. That has surprised some election watchers who expected the highly competitive Republican presidential primary race to attract a large turnout of that party’s voters.
A fairly strong turnout also was expected among Democrats for their own presidential primary, and for the hotly-contested Texas Senate District 26 race between incumbent Sen. José Menéndez and challenger Trey Martinez Fischer. The contest is a bitter rematch of the 2015 special election won by Menéndez after former Sen. Leticia Van de Putte stepped down to make an unsuccessful run for San Antonio mayor. Martinez Fischer has given up his Texas House seat to engage Menéndez in the rematch.
“I’m never happy to hear there is a line of people having to wait to vote, but I can’t help but smile,” said Bexar County Elections Administrator Jacquelyn Callanen, “It’s about time we had lines in Bexar County. Today (Thursday) was a huge pickup. The last two days are always huge. We’ve already had 11,988 vote by 5 p.m, with three hours to go, as many people as voted all day yesterday.”
Thursday’ combined total was 15, 983 voters. Once again, early voting sites on the city’s Northside drew far more voters than the inner city sites.
Republican primary voters have a lot of names at top of their ballot. There are 13 candidates on the presidential ballot, along with the option of passing on all 13 names and voting to send uncommitted delegates to the July 18-21 Republican National Convention in Cleveland. Seven of the candidates have withdrawn from the race. Another, Elizabeth Grey, is a mystery candidate nobody seems to know. It’s the race between frontrunner Trump and Texas Cruz that should animate Republican voters to turn out.
*Top image: Modified graphic courtesy of Heavy Heavy.
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210 Podcast: Meet Trey Martinez Fischer and José Menéndez
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