Bexar County midterm turnout on pace to top 2024, official says

Bexar County is likely to cast more ballots in the November midterm than it did in the 2024 presidential election, Elections Administrator Michele Carew said on Oct. 26, after about 301,000 early in-person and mail votes were counted through Oct. 25.

The county, home to San Antonio, has about 1.3 million registered voters, more than 45,000 of them added since 2024, according to the San Antonio Report. Roughly 763,000 ballots were cast there in 2024, about 59% of the county's registered voters.

Midterm turnout rarely approaches a presidential year. More than 176,000 people voted in person in the first four days of early voting, about 40% more than in the same stretch of 2022 but roughly 15,000 short of 2024, KSAT reported. Strategists attribute the pace partly to an unusually expensive election, with nearly $1 billion spent on the U.S. Senate race and three competitive congressional contests in the San Antonio area.

Both parties are also competing for Latino voters who swung toward President Donald Trump in 2024, Texas Public Radio reported, with San Antonio and South Texas a focus of that fight. "If there's one place anywhere in the country, certainly in the state, that is a hotbed for that for competition for Latino votes, it's San Antonio and South Texas," Republican strategist Kelton Morgan told the San Antonio Report.

Carew said the county is "likely to see more votes cast in this November's midterm election than there was in the 2024 presidential election." Morgan called the numbers "very unusual" and said off-year elections typically draw 50% to 55% turnout. Texas does not register voters by party, but early ballots so far have come more from voters with a history of voting in Democratic primaries than from those with Republican primary histories. Political analysts have cautioned against reading too much into early totals. KSAT also reported waits of up to two hours at a Leon Valley polling site.

Early voting runs through Friday, Oct. 30. Election Day is Nov. 3, with polls open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Sources: Bexar County turnout could surpass 2024 presidential election · Bexar County sees increase in early voting turnout compared to 2022 midterm · In an unusual year, Bexar County reports midterm turnout on track to surpass 2024 presidential election

This story was written with the help of artificial intelligence from verified sources and reviewed by a human editor before publication.