Bexar County commissioners have called a special meeting for Tuesday to discuss additional polling sites required by a state district judge.
The county has been successfully sued twice for not having enough polling sites for the Nov. 8 election.
A state district judge most recently ruled the county needs 388 polling sites to meet state election code.
The Texas Organizing Project or TOP won the most recent suit. Aaron Arguello of TOP told commissioners last week one of those additional polling sites needs to be at the county jail.
“Currently those incarcerated in the jail can rely only on mail-in ballots. But the numbers indicate that mail-in ballots are insufficient,” said Arguello. “Recent data shows that in the 2018 and 2019 municipal elections, zero mail-in ballots were counted.”
County officials as of last week had boosted the number of polling locations from more than 250 to more than 270.
County Elections Administrator Jacque Callanen and County Judge Nelson Wolff have both told Texas Public Radio finding volunteers to staff polling locations has been no easy task.
“As you know, these are difficult times when a vast number of people have been attacking elections systems. Election officials have been personally attacked, so it’s not easy to find election sites. It’s not easy to recruit people to do it,” Wolff said.
Very few young people volunteer as election workers, said Callanen. The average poll worker here is 71 years old.
Some veterans groups volunteered at a recent county commissioners meeting to help staff polling sites.
Callanen has been able to convince all the commissioners or the courts that having more than 270 “vote anywhere” sites works just as well has having dozens more polling places.
Commissioners Tommy Calvert, Rebeca Clay-Flores, and Justin Rodriguez have been critical of Callanen’s efforts to place more polling places in the underserved East, West, and South Sides.
Callanen said in the last major election, voters told election officials where they liked to vote in sheer numbers. She said she elected to close polling sites where only a handful of voters turned out on election day.
Judge Wolff also pointed out more than 65% of voters will skip election day and vote early or by mail-in ballot.
Early voting starts Oct. 24 and voters can vote at any of the 50 sites set up.