The Bexar County Elections Department must process 13,000 voter registrations over the weekend if they’re all to be complete by Monday’s start of early voting, Elections Administrator Michele Carew said Friday.
At an afternoon press conference, Carew said she remains confident that Elections Department employees will be able to process the backlog in time.
“We are still working through all of our applications,” Carew said. “Our goal is to have them ready by Monday, but there may be some that we’re still working on when early voting begins.”
Carew said that in addition to the 10,000 hand-delivered applications the county was still working through, it received an additional 3,000 Thursday night from the Texas Secretary of State’s Office through Texas Online, an app that lets voters update their addresses.
“We are working around the clock to work on the backlog that we received last night as well as the hand-delivered and mailed-in voter registration applications and applications for vote by mail,” Carew said.
To that end, the Elections Department added as many as 60 temporary staffers, who are working in shifts. The temp workers were first hired on in early September to help process the backlog created by a delay with the Department of Public Safety, which is responsible for a statewide backlog of at least 200,000 unprocessed voter registrations dating back a year.
Carew said that voters should show up and vote regardless of how their voter status appears online.
“I also want voters to know that no voters will be turned away at the polling locations,” Carew said.
Bexar County voters who find themselves on the state’s Suspense List won’t be limited as to where or when they can vote within the County, Carew confirmed. Voters — including those in Suspense — should bring valid ID, such as a Texas Driver License, State Identification Card or Texas Election Registration Certificate and, if needed, update their address with a poll worker.
“We’re not questioning whether you’re eligible to vote in this election, we’re just needing to verify your address,” Carew said.
Due to the high volume of registrations the Elections Department needed to process, the office was temporarily closed Thursday and Friday.
“Our highest priority is the accuracy, security and integrity of every step of the election process,” Carew added.
Carew assured the press that the department is “ready to go” for Monday and that voting machines have been delivered and tested.
“I want the community to know that the election is working exactly as it should,” Carew said. “Regardless of the delays we’ve had and the difficulties we’ve had over the past few weeks, my team has been preparing since June for this election.”
During the March primary, some voters waited in line for up to three hours after polling sites closed, in turn, delaying the announcement of election results.
Carew said the county has added polling locations and stations to reduce lines, bottlenecks and wait times ahead of the Midterm elections. She added that her department has also updated its tabulation system to produce election results faster “as long as there aren’t long lines still inside the polling site.”
Carew assured reporters that her staff has been preparing for the midterms — for which she expects high turnout — “as if it’s a presidential election.”
Asked by a reporter, Carew also insisted that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers won’t be allowed inside polling locations.
Polls for early voting open at 8 a.m. Monday, Oct. 19.
A list of early voting locations and hours of operation can be found on the Bexar County Elections website.
Here is a list of the acceptable forms of photo ID for voting in Texas:
- Texas Driver License issued by the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS)
- Texas Election Identification Certificate issued by DPS
- Texas Personal Identification Card issued by DPS
- Texas Handgun License issued by DPS
- United States Military Identification Card containing the person’s photograph
- United States Citizenship Certificate containing the person’s photograph
- United States Passport (book or card)
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