Crisanta Guerra Lozano was excited to cast a ballot for her daughter, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Gina Hinojosa, on the first day of early voting.
However, when Lozano showed up to vote at Bexar County Elections Department headquarters, election workers couldn’t locate her in the system, she said in a video detailing her experience, which was provided to the Current.
Lozano, a San Antonio resident and a legal aid attorney, went to the polling site around 10:30 a.m. Monday. In her video, she describes the bureaucratic nightmare that came next.
“I was told that I was not on the list, which surprised me,” Lozano said in her video statement, which was recorded by Democratic activist Kathy Vale.
Lozano said the surprise came in part because county officials assured her ahead of time that she was cleared to vote.
The attorney had checked online two weeks before the Oct. 5 voter registration deadline and saw that she was no longer registered to vote, though she had lived at the same address for seven years.
“I have voted at every single election. I’ve never had a problem,” Lozano said on the video while holding a handmade “Vote for my daughter Gina Hinojosa for Governor” sign.
After the online system showed her as unregistered, Lozano went to the Bexar County Elections Department in person and presented her drivers license to re-register.
“They took my license and said, ‘You’re fine. There should be no problem,'” Lozano said.
However, when Lozano showed up for early voting Monday, the election worker couldn’t find her on the rolls, she said. The worker then sent her to an office in another part of the building.
However, a different person in the office assured her that she was registered and provided her with her voter ID number, adding, “You shouldn’t have any problem,'” Lozano said.
At that point, Lozano was sent back to the polling room, where she told the election worker that the office was able to locate her in the system and provided her ID number.
“Again, they couldn’t find me on the list. They told me to move aside and that I would probably have to do a provisional ballot,” said Lozano, who added that another person was waiting near her after encountering the same problem.
“I told them, ‘I am not going to vote with provisional ballot. My daughter is on the ballot as governor. I am not leaving here until I can vote,'” Lozano said. “So I waited and waited and I said, ‘This is voter suppression.”
After an hour and half of waiting, Lozano said workers made a phone call — though she doesn’t know to whom — and they were finally able to locate her.
“I asked them, ‘What was the problem?’ and they said, ‘I don’t know,” Lozano added.
Lozano’s problem appearing in the system comes after the County wrestled with a backlog of 45,000 unprocessed voter registrations caused by a delay at the Department of Public Safety, which impacted over 200,000 voter registrations statewide. As of Friday, Bexar County had 13,000 voter registrations to process ahead of Monday’s start of early voting.
“I stood my ground, refused to leave, and refused to vote on a provisional ballot,” Lozano said. “But there are other individuals who would not have been so persistent. I am concerned about that, and I am concerned that this is voter suppression.”
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