As San Antonio voters return to the polls for a vastly consequential mayor’s race and Metropolis Council runoff elections, the Bexar County Elections Division is taking warmth for posting — after which revising — an early voting schedule that didn’t embrace any weekend voting hours.
Election day voting for the runoff is Saturday, June 7, with polls open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
An early voting schedule noting that “ballot websites is not going to be open on weekends” was posted to the division’s web site shortly after the Could 3 election.
However after voting rights advocates and native Democrats complained, a brand new schedule that included weekend voting hours had changed it by Tuesday morning.
The brand new schedule reveals an eight-day early voting window as an alternative of six days, with hours various by date from Could 27 via June 3. Polls will now be open on Saturday, Could 31, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. and on Sunday, June 1, from midday to six p.m.
The Bexar County Elections Division didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
Among the many races on the June 7 poll, San Antonio voters shall be weighing in on mayoral contest that’s drawn state and nationwide consideration.
The nonpartisan race is now right down to a head-to-head matchup between Democrat-backed Gina Ortiz Jones and Republican-supported Rolando Pablos for a place each events say is necessary to their future success in Texas.
After remarkably low turnout within the first spherical of voting, Democrats had been fast to counsel that chopping weekend early voting availability would disproportionately harm Jones and different progressive council candidates by making it tougher for his or her supporters to vote.
“Individuals in San Antonio who work Monday via Friday, lengthy hours and a number of jobs, caring for each kids and aged members of the family depend on early voting availability on weekends,” mentioned Democratic activist Kathy Vale, who represents Precinct 2 on the Bexar County Elections and Voter Engagement Advisory Committee.
“With San Antonio’s already embarrassingly low voter turnout on this municipal election — the place lower than one in 10 registered voters forged their vote — I count on we are going to at all times do all the pieces attainable to encourage voter turnout and make it straightforward as attainable for San Antonio to early vote within the consequential runoff election,” Vale mentioned.
She and Bexar County Democratic Get together Chair Michelle Lowe Solis, who serves on the Elections Fee tasked with hiring the county’s elections administrator, had been amongst those that reached out with their considerations to get the schedule modified.
Native Republicans, in the meantime, have pointed to low turnout within the first spherical as proof the county is losing cash working so many early voting areas. Early voting within the Could 3 election completed with in-person turnout down a few third from San Antonio’s final metropolis election in 2023.
“I believe the the they should consolidate websites the place they’d low turnout and work on these different websites that had been producing greater quantities [of voters],” mentioned Bexar GOP Vice Chair Kyle Sinclair, who wasn’t conscious of the evolving weekend early voting plans. “Extra will not be higher. In some circumstances, much less is healthier. Much less websites will not be limiting voters, it’s getting the very best bang to your buck.”
The elections division hasn’t but introduced the variety of voting areas and the place they’ll be positioned, although leaders of the 2 events have been combating over this concern for years.
The Bexar County Elections Division is below new management this yr for the primary time in roughly 20 years after longtime elections chief Jacque Callanen resigned in June.
Callanen had her personal disagreements with voting rights advocates, who sued her twice to open extra polling areas, and was changed by new Elections Administrator Michele Carew in March.
A high-interest runoff?
All San Antonio voters are eligible to take part within the June 7 mayoral and council runoffs, even when they didn’t forged a poll of their first spherical.
The deadline to register to vote for the runoff election is Could 8.
Although turnout was weak within the Could 3 race, some political strategists say there might be extra curiosity within the runoff, when voters are simply selecting between two candidates.
“San Antonio does one thing bizarre that I don’t ever see wherever else, and that’s, it could not be out of the realm of chance that the runoff has greater turnout than the primary spherical,” mentioned San Antonio political strategist Kelton Morgan. “You noticed that in2017 and 2019.”
