Months after narrowly securing a 6–5 vote to move San Antonio’s municipal elections from May to November, Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones is proposing a new initiative aimed at boosting voter participation.
Standing on the steps of City Hall last Friday, Jones announced plans to establish the Mayor’s Commission on Voting — a nonpartisan advisory body focused on increasing voter engagement across the city.
“Voting is the mark of a citizen. It is a cherished right and it’s a right that is under attack,” Jones said. “We must do more to increase voter engagement in our community.”
Joining Jones were leaders from several nonpartisan civic organizations, including the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project, the League of Women Voters of San Antonio, MOVE Texas and Radical Registrars.
Jill Torbert, president of the League of Women Voters of San Antonio, said the proposal signals the city’s commitment to prioritize turnout.
“By recommending a commission on voting, Mayor Jones is saying that voting is important,” Torbert said. “And that San Antonio is going to make improving voter turnout a priority. We hope that the City Council will stand behind this initiative.”
Pending council approval, the commission would include three appointees selected by the mayor and one appointee from each of the city’s 10 council districts. Jones said she hopes to have the body in place by April 3.
The announcement came on the final day of early voting ahead of the March 3 primary election.
Building on November win
The proposal follows one of Jones’ most closely watched policy wins: moving San Antonio’s municipal elections to November of odd-numbered years.
Approved in December after a lengthy and at times tense debate, the changes moved the next mayoral and City Council elections to take place in November 2029 instead of May of that year. Supporters argued the shift would increase turnout by aligning local races with higher-profile November ballots.
Research presented to council during the debate showed that mayoral elections held in May average about 19% turnout nationwide, compared with roughly 28% for November odd-year elections.
Jones describes the proposed commission as the next phase of that effort.
“I’m proud of our efforts, in large part to many of the folks back here to move the municipal elections from May to November, a move that will save our city money and increase turnout,” she said, referring to the civic leaders standing behind her. “We must do more to help ourselves, and that is what the mayor’s commission on voting will aim to do as envisioned.”
She said the commission would focus on outreach and identifying barriers that may still prevent residents from participating — whether they are longtime voters or residents who have never cast a ballot.
The commission would be advisory in nature and would examine voter turnout, civic education and engagement across all elections — municipal, state and federal — as well as bond elections.
County voter engagement committee ‘has never met’
Because election administration in Texas is handled at the county level, Jones said the city commission would work jointly with the county to influence voter access.
“We actually partner with the county on elections, and so we can certainly provide our feedback as we are providing our money,” she said, pointing to issues such as polling locations and hours as issues that could enhance accessibility for voters.
She added that the city could help identify gaps affecting residents who work nontraditional hours, including shift workers.
When asked why the city and county did not form a joint commission, Jones said collaboration remains possible but emphasized the need to get started.
“There’s nothing that prevents that, right?” Jones said.” I think it’s important, though, that we get moving and so the city can lean forward, and that’s what we’re doing.”
The proposed commission comes as Bexar County officials are reviewing their own advisory bodies.
At Commissioners Court earlier this month, members discussed the county’s Elections and Voter Engagement Advisory Committee — created in 2020 for advising on pandemic-era changes to voting procedures — as Precinct 4 Commissioner Tommy Calvert moved to appoint a new member.
Similar to the mayor’s proposal, Precinct 2 Commissioner Justin Rodriguez said the committee was intended to provide citizen input on transparency and accessibility in the elections process.
But Precinct 3 Commissioner Grant Moody said that despite appointments being made, the committee “has never met” since it was formed.
“We have to have this conversation between ourselves as the court and between county staff in terms of who owns these committees and who ensures that they’re meeting,” he said. ”We want to have engagement, we want to have people serve but if we ask people to serve on a committee and then they never meet, it leaves a bad taste in their mouth.”
Moody asked County Manager David Smith about oversight and accountability for advisory boards.
Smith said county staff are compiling a full list of boards, task forces and advisory groups created over the years — some of which may have been inactive for a decade or more.
“We’re going to be assigning specific staff to be monitoring and coordinating agenda postings, making sure that appointments to the committees haven’t expired,” he said.”So that you all can, from a policy level, deal with, well, do we need this committee? Does it need to be bigger or smaller?”
The scale of the review, Smith added, has proven larger than expected.
“As far as I’ve been here 30 years, nothing to this extent has been undertaken at a countywide level,” he said. “The list of community committees we’re finding that theoretically still exist and probably haven’t for years, even a decade or more, is far more extensive than initially thought.”
Meanwhile at the city, Jones’ proposal now heads to City Council, where members will consider an implementing ordinance outlining the commission’s structure and responsibilities.
