Record Turnout, Real Strain: Bexar County Works Through Ballot Errors, a Jammed Scanner and a Registration-Card Backlog

Bexar County's record early turnout is straining the system that has to absorb it. More than 176,000 people cast ballots in person during the first four days of early voting, KSAT reported — a sharp increase over the last midterm — after more than 88,000 voted in person in the first two days alone. The first day's 42,776 ballots set the county record for a non-presidential opener.

The problems reported in the first week were specific. Some ballot measures went missing from ballots, an issue the county traced to state-supplied district-split data that transposed ballots; the county said it corrected the mapping after the problem was reported. At the Leon Valley Conference Center, a new scanner jammed and produced waits of up to two hours, and county officials deployed technicians and turned to emergency ballot bins when machines failed.

To handle the volume, the county added voting machines, check-in stations and phone staff and launched a wait-time app, reporting on the elections office said. A printing backlog is limiting voter registration card output to about 250 cards per day, leaving more than 130,000 cards delayed — a backlog voters have noticed at check-in, where poll workers can correct address problems on the spot for voters who stay in line and work with the clerks.

What happens next is set: officials will begin running early ballots through tabulators on October 31 and will release results after polls close on Election Day, Tuesday, November 3. Early voting continues through Friday, October 30 — Friday 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturday 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., Sunday noon to 6 p.m., and 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. for the final week — and anyone in line when polls close is still allowed to vote.