Here’s how that stacks up with recent elections.
SAN ANTONIO — As far as turnout for November elections goes, residents in Bexar County aren’t ready to declare that the question of funding a Spurs arena is as pivotal as a presidential contest… yet.
Nonetheless, elections officials say that of the roughly 1.28 million registered to vote in this fall’s election, 10,159 turned out to make their voice heard on a ballot in which zero San Antonio or countywide seats up for grabs as early voting got underway Monday.
Instead, the headlining ballot measures are Bexar County Propositions A & B, which would provide funding for improvements to the Freeman Coliseum/Frost Bank Center grounds and a new San Antonio Spurs arena downtown, respectively.
Monday’s in-person turnout figure is about 16.2% the total early voter turnout in Bexar County for November 2023’s Joint Constitutional Amendments, General, Special, Charter and Bond Election, with 11 days of early voting remaining this month. And the number is less than half the record-breaking turnout of 23,370 in-person ballots on the first day of early voting in the consequential November 2024 election, when Donald Trump beat Kamala Harris for the presidency.
Election officials have said the first two days of an early voting period tend to be the busiest.
Monday’s figure is, however, about 44% higher than the 6,519 who lined up to vote the first day they could in May, when San Antonio was asked to whittle down 27 mayoral candidates to two.
Historical day-by-day early voting breakdowns are not readily available on the Bexar County Elections Department website, but overall turnout has generally risen over the last decade from about 42,500 early ballots in the November 2015 election to the 62,615 who voted early and in person in 2023.
In addition to 10,159 in-person voters logged Monday, the elections department also said it received 2,417 mail-in ballots.