Correction: This post has been updated to reflect the correct comparison numbers from Flagship Campaigns for the first round of voting.

So far voters have been more interested in San Antonio’s heated June 7 runoff contests than the first round of voting.

At the conclusion of early voting Tuesday, in-person turnout was up roughly 53% compared to this same point in the May 3 election — when an overwhelmingly long ticket, voter fatigue and Fiesta celebrations were all blamed for depressingly low turnout.

Now San Antonio’s mayoral race is down to a head-to-head contest between two ideologically opposite candidates, Gina Ortiz Jones and Rolando Pablos, and Districts 1, 6, 8 and 9 have City Council runoffs on the ballot as well. 

There’s still one more chance to cast a ballot on election day, Saturday, June 7, when voters can choose from any of these polling locations, open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.

According to data compiled by San Antonio political firm Flagship Campaigns, about 98,300 early, in-person ballots were cast for the runoff, plus about 3,700 mail ballots received so far.

That’s just shy of the 102,300 total votes cast in the May 3 race — with election day voting still to come.

Flagship Campaigns owner Bert Santibañez has worked for Jones’ mayoral campaign, and shared the numbers at the request of the San Antonio Report.

“While we’ve seen an uptick in Northside turnout during the runoff, both women and Latino voters have increased their participation compared to the first round,” Santibañez said Wednesday.

Pablos’ campaign said it’s also observing growing interest from the first round.

Bexar County Elections Administrator Michele Carew said last week that in addition to higher in-person voting, requests for mail ballots also increased.

About 4,900 mail ballots were sent out for the May 3 race, compared to 5,700 for the runoff.

Focus on the North Side

The last time San Antonio had a mayoral runoff between Mayor Ron Nirenberg and conservative challenger Greg Brockhouse in 2019, runoff turnout also exceeded the first round.

Nirenberg won with 51.11% of the vote to Brockhouse’s 48.89%. 

To succeed where no conservative mayoral candidate has in many years, Pablos’ campaign is focused on turning out his base on the city’s North Side — where turnout appears to be growing the most from the first round.

That’s also where two council runoffs, for District 8 and District 9, are on the ballot.

So far, the districts with the biggest turnout increases have been Northside Districts 9 and 10. Together they made up about 31.3% of the city’s turnout in the first round, and are now making up a larger share in the runoff, about 33.8%.

At the conclusion of early voting, District 9 had already cast about 7,900 more ballots than it did in the entirety of the first race, according to Santibañez. District 10 had cast about 5,600 more ballots than its first round total.

District 9 has a heated, expensive runoff between GOP activist Misty Spears and Angi Taylor Aramburu, a former Democratic state House candidate. District 10 doesn’t have a council runoff on the ballot because incumbent Councilman Marc Whyte was reelected outright.

District 1, which stretches from downtown to the Northside, has already surpassed its round one turnout by about 4,000 votes. The district is home to a runoff between Councilwoman Sukh Kaur (D1) and conservative neighborhood leader Patty Gibbons.

Westside District 6, which has a progressive-on-progressive council runoff, is beating its round one turnout by about 3,200 votes. District 7, which has no council runoff, is up about 4,100 votes from its first round total.

Asked about the turnout so far on Friday, Pablos’ campaign was enthusiastic.

“As expected, with a stark choice between two candidates, we are seeing even greater enthusiasm among our voters for Rolando’s policy positions, his character, and his vision for leading San Antonio,” Pablos’ campaign consultant Justin Hollis said in a statement.

Santibañez, on the other hand, noted that even San Antonio’s reddest parts are competitive for both political parties, meaning bigger Northside turnout doesn’t necessarily mean an advantage for one candidate or the other.

For example, Northside Bexar County Commissioner Precinct 3 supported both a Democrat, U.S. Senate candidate Colin Allred, and a Republican, Bexar County Commissioner Grant Moody, on the same ticket in the November election.

“For most political observers locally, the knee-jerk assumption is that the North Side is solidly red, but in recent elections, both [former President Joe] Biden and Allred won County Commissioner Precinct 3,” Santibañez said.