Bexar County elections administrator reports record turnout, details fixes and $4M HAVA award ahead of March primary

Elections Administrator Michelle Carew told the Bexar County Election Commission on Friday that the office delivered a successful November election despite vendor transitions and site‑availability problems, then outlined a series of operational fixes and a $4,000,000 federal grant intended to strengthen polling capacity before the March 2026 joint primary.

Carew said the county had 1,286,826 registered voters for the November contest and that overall turnout was 19.4 percent, with roughly 248,840 voters casting ballots. Early voting made up about 57.4 percent of participation, election‑day voting roughly 40 percent and by‑mail ballots about 2.5 percent. "We were at 99,957 voters" on election day at one point, she said, summarizing hourly traffic and noting peak lines of several thousand per hour at busy locations.

The administrator told commissioners the county fell short of the state guidance of 388 vote centers and instead operated 285 locations because multiple school districts and some sites declined or were unavailable. That shortfall, combined with a long ballot (Carew cited 17 constitutional amendments during the election), contributed to long lines at several sites.

Carew defended a decision late on election night to delay releasing preliminary early‑voting totals, saying she had consulted Christina Atkins at the Secretary of…