Hundreds take a step to vote in November
County is on pace to see 12% increase since 2016 election
A line forms outside the Bexar County Elections Department on South Frio Street on Monday, which was the last day to register to vote in the Nov. 3 election.
Katherine Cortez marked her 18th birthday Monday alongside hundreds of other Bexar County residents, standing in line on the last day to register to vote in the Nov. 3 election.
She’ll be among the youngest voters casting a ballot in Bexar County. In Texas, voters must be at least 18 on Election Day.
Cortez, a Southside High School senior attending early college education at Palo Alto College, decided after doing a class assignment on last week’s presidential debate to ask her grandfather to take her downtown to register. Standing in a socially distanced line of people at the Bexar County Elections Department, she said she wants to have a voice in politics and government.
“I feel good. I feel like I have a say,” Cortez said.
The county is on pace to register 1,175,000 voters — a 12 percent increase since the last presidential election — by the time all the registration forms arrive in the mail in the week ahead, said Bexar County Elections Administrator Jacque Callanen. To qualify to vote Nov. 3, the forms had to have been postmarked no later than Monday.
“We’ve seen lots of activity,” she said. “My only hope— myprayer— is that the people who are coming to register to vote will come back to vote.”
About 3,700 people registered Saturday and Sunday, raising the number of voters in the county to 1,170,389 as of Monday morning. The were 1,049,089 registered for the last presidential election in 2016.
The department at 1103 S. Frio St. stayed open two extra hours Monday to process registration forms in person in the foyer of the building. Some people also were in line to hand-deliver a mail-in ballot.
By noon Monday, the department had processed about 250 mail
ballots. Voters were required to sign in and show a photo ID. The ballots were time-stamped and marked “hand-delivered.”
Voters were given an “I voted” sticker, “and that just makes their face light up,” Callanen said.
The bulk of the 10,000 mail ballots that have been returned, out of the 91,000 that were sent out, have arrived by mail.
“As soon as they’re getting them, they’re sending them back,” Callanen said. “We want to tell people to
rest assured that the post office is working.
“From here on out, I think we’re going to be busy,” she added.
County staff also are sending mail ballot applications to all registered voters who are 65 or older and haven’t signed up to vote by mail — more than 100,000 people. Callanen is urging voters not to send a second application if they’ve already sent one. Mail ballot applications must reach the department by Oct. 23.
The parking lot at elections headquarters was humming with traffic at a level few have seen since the department moved there in 2015. Some standing in line were registering after moving here from outside Bexar County. Others were young and have never voted.
Ethan Samford, 21, and his sister, Michaela Nelson, 18, signed up to vote for the first time. Both are graduates of East Central High School.
“It’s something that’s important for each of us to do,” Samford said. “You should at least figure out what ideals suit you, and them apply them to your vote.
“Eventually, the country’s going to change for worse or for better,” he said. “It just depends on what you think. That’s why we vote. We vote for our leaders, so that they can make the decisions that we want. So that they can change the world for us in a better way for us, in a way that we view as better.”
Samford didn’t mind waiting in the line, which moved quickly. The building’s shadow kept most of the visitors in the shade on a warm October afternoon.
His sister, Nelson was less enthusiastic. She said their grandma made her register.
“I really didn’t want to vote at all. I don’t like politics,” Nelson said.
Cortez, who observed the rite of passage on her 18th birthday, didn’t need to be cajoled by her grandfather, Severo Campos, 71.
“She told me, ‘Grandpa, I want to vote.’ I said, ‘OK,’ ” Campos said.
He recalled being 18 when he registered to vote in 1968, shortly before he was drafted into the military. Campos said he was heartened to see his granddaughter get involved in the political process, part of a new generation of American voters.
“I’m very proud of her,” he said. “All my kids are registered to vote. I don’t tell them which way to vote. I just say, ‘ Follow your conscience.’ ”
Early voting is set for Oct. 13-30 at 48 sites countywide.