Now that early voting has ended, Bexar County Elections Administrator Jacque Callanen mentioned Saturday that the county’s voting is down from the 2020 presidential election.
Callanen continues to be predicting a busy Election Day turnout on Nov. 5, nevertheless, partly as a result of there have been fewer alternatives this 12 months to vote forward of time.
Due to COVID-19 precautions throughout the 2020 election, early voting was prolonged by per week, and an incredible emphasis was placed on voting by mail.
Towards that backdrop, Callanen mentioned that in 2020 the county acquired about 690,000 votes forged early or by mail — in comparison with 605,000 early and mailed votes forged in 2024, although mailed ballots are nonetheless being counted as they’re acquired.
That places the county’s turnout at about 46.7% headed into Election Day this 12 months, Callanen mentioned on Saturday.
Whole turnout for county within the 2020 election was 65.1%.
Callanen mentioned it’s unlikely Bexar County will catch as much as that proportion in 2024.
However Election Day voting ought to account for a a lot bigger share of the overall votes forged this 12 months, she mentioned, bringing the uncooked vote whole not less than as excessive as 2020.
The weird give attention to early and mail-in voting made for a a lot decrease than anticipated Election Day turnout in 2020, with roughly 84,000 votes forged, Callanen mentioned.
“The important thing to this that we’re is Election Day in 2020… which was like, ‘The place’s the voters?’” Callanen mentioned. “So we’re taking a step again right here, and we’re ready.”
This Tuesday, Callanen mentioned the Elections Division is planning for roughly 275,000 Election Day votes to be forged throughout Bexar County’s 300-plus voting places — greater than triple the variety of Election Day votes forged 4 years in the past.
She pointed to the 2022 midterm, when Gov. Greg Abbott was on the poll towards Democrat Beto O’Rourke, for instance of how voting patterns have shifted because the “anomaly” of 2020.
Roughly 151,000 votes have been forged on Election Day throughout the 2022 midterm, Callanen mentioned — nearly double the Election Day turnout of the 2020 presidential race — though total turnout within the midterm was far decrease.
Not solely had early voting returned to an everyday two week window, however Texas’ 2021 voting regulation made voting by mail extra sophisticated, Callanen mentioned.
In comparison with the 121,000 mail poll functions her workplace acquired in 2020, this 12 months they’ve acquired simply 51,000.
“We’d by no means seen that [number of mail ballot applications], and we haven’t seen it since,” Callanen mentioned of the 2020 bump.
