Safety reigns as voters go back to the polls
Despite soaring temperatures and a resurgent pandemic, Bexar County voters turned out Tuesday for the primary runoffs that had been delayed by almost two months.
Most wore face masks, a stubborn few didn’t. Some leaned left, others right. All came to exercise their responsibility as citizens of a democracy.
One day after the mercury recorded 107 degrees in San Antonio, they came to more than 200 “voting centers,” showing appropriate social distancing and voting with a pencil eraser tip.
Elections Administrator Jacque Callanen said turnout for the runoff was “fantastic.” More than 31,600 people voted on Tuesday. Combined with early voting and mail-in voting, the total surpassed 114,000. “We don’t know why, was it because we had an extra week? … Maybe,” Callanen said. “Because we’re seeing double the numbers we expected. With COVID, with the heat, with the postponed election…. It’s almost the perfect storm.”
Election judges implemented numerous safety precautions, including gloves, face masks and shields, plexiglass screens at qualifying tables and limiting the number of voters inside polling places.
Voters were instructed to take out their IDs, and then sanitize their hands. Voters were handed plastic gloves or a pencil, and were instructed to use one of those to press on the voting machines — a contact-free operation.
“I’m so unbelievably proud of the election officials. When they opened this morning, they were in a new realm,” Callanen said, noting that many of them are elderly and especially vulnerable to the disease.
“We’re just asking please, some basic respect for those election officials. Basically they decided voting and a civic duty for democracy was worth their taking a chance.”
At Lions Field on Broadway, where during the early voting period the lines wound through the parking lot, on Election Day there was hardly any wait at all.
“Thank you for coming out to vote, sir!” said Cassandra Pearson, 57, from her folding chair seat under a tree in front of the building.
She had set up signs urging voters to cast a ballot for her friend Precinct 4 Constable Kathryn Brown.
While she couldn’t approach people near the voting site, she could make her support known.
“Basically a visual. And I thank people for coming out to vote. And whether you vote for my candidate or not, it’s good that you at least vote,” Pearson said.
Candidate signs of various sizes and colors dotted the lawn. From the large blue-and-red “Trish DeBerry” sign for Precinct 3 commissioner to a smaller “Mike ‘Chief’ Ramirez” blue-and-yellow sign for the constable candidate.
Pearson has been voting since she turned 18.
She understands why some people come out to vote, but she wishes they thought differently.
“They’re frustrated with everything that’s going on, and they feel like their one little voice doesn’t matter,” she said. “But all the little voices together make one big voice.”
At the Claude Black Multi Service Center on the East Side, Josie Flowers was all dressed up to vote. Her shirt quoted Rosa Parks in 1955 with one word: “Nah.” Her black mask had “Faith over fear” written on it in silver sequins.
“My people bled and died for us to have that right. I will vote over a dogfight if I have to,” said Flowers, 75, standing in front of the center on East Commerce. “I teach my grandchildren to vote. You have no voice if you don’t vote.”
People were trickling in at the center late Tuesday morning. Others had gotten there early, including Georgia Edwards, president of the San Antonio alumni chapter of the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority.
Edwards and other chapter members set up a tent in the parking lot and were handing out census material to voters and thanking them for voting.
The census “determines new highways, new parks — so much that’ll impact the community,” Edwards said.
She said they also encourage people to vote, though they would prefer to do it in different conditions.
“We’d rather not have to do it in-person, but since that’s the only way the state allows us to, we’re encouraging everybody we can to come out and take the precautions,” Edwards said.
The election did not come off without some hitches. After about 50 election site workers decided not to work because of concerns about the coronavirus, the number of voting centers was reduced from 226 to 214.