After several weeks of late nights and contractual controversies, the Bexar County Elections Department is on the brink of finally catching up on its voter registration backlog. So, anyone hoping to weigh in on public dollars for the hotly debated Spurs arena project (who registered to vote by October 6) can cue up starting October 20 voice their opinion.
Since late September, the elections department has been burning the midnight oil manually processing voter registration forms to get them into a digital system. After promises of quick completion fell flat, a team of full-time and temporary staff have whittled the backlog down from more than 50,000 to just 6,000 – taking on upwards of 5,000 forms a day.
“We are on track to be 100% caught up by end of day Today! We have around 6,000 applications left to process,” Bexar County Elections Administrator Michel Carew told MySA Tuesday, October 14. “With the deployment of 58 temporary staff and round-the-clock effort, we have been able to successfully meet the election deadline.”
It’s a close call. Early voting starts Monday, October 20 and runs for two weeks, ending on Halloween. Though, Carew and other officials vowed they would have this backlog tackled before voters showed up at the polls and held to their word. Voting early means casting a ballot at whatever location is convenient across any of the roughly 50 polling sites. Come Election Day, November 4, voters will need to track down their specific voting precinct site.
This all began when the company Bexar County contracted with folded over the summer, according to a San Antonio Express-News article. A new contract with VR Systems is being negotiated, with an early 2026 implementation day pending, but Carew isn’t sharing details as bargains continue.
“I am unable to speak on this as contract negotiations are still ongoing,” Carew said.
So, now that we know the backlog is tackled, it’s time to check your voter registration status to make sure you can cast a vote on some of the county and state’s biggest propositions. Luckily, Texas has a government website that makes it pretty easy. You can use your name, date of birth and either a driver’s license or ID number or your county and zip code to confirm your voter registration status.