Early voting ends Friday; turnout appears slightly higher than recent elections

  

SAN ANTONIO – Heading into the 12th and final early voting Friday, 541,000 people have already cast a ballot in Bexar County.

The Bexar County Elections Department will hold a press conference at 10:30 a.m. Friday to discuss early voting numbers. KSAT will livestream the press conference in this article. Delays are possible; if there is not a livestream available, check back at a later time.

While it’s a big number far above recent elections, it’s actually much closer to a regular turnout when looking at it as percentage of turnout. Bexar County has added 250,000 voters since the 2016 election. So, in terms of raw numbers, turnout is all but guaranteed to be higher.

This year’s turnout between in-person and mail ballots stands at 41.8%, compared to 39.3% and 40.6% in the 2020 and 2016 elections at the same point in time.

Early voting in 2016 ended its 12th day of early voting with 41.8% turnout and nearly 437,000 votes cast.

Early voting in 2020 ended its 12th day of early voting with 35.5% turnout and nearly 422,000 votes cast. Because of the pandemic, though, it lasted an additional six days and reached 57.2% turnout with 680,000 votes by the end.

The Bexar County Elections Department will be holding a news conference at 10:30 a.m. outside its downtown office with an update on the early voting process. KSAT will livestream it here.

Here’s a look at how this year’s turnout compares to the past four presidential elections.

RAW NUMBERS

PERCENTAGE TURNOUT

You can also plan out where you want to vote by looking at KSAT’s running list of the busiest and least busy early vote centers.