Turnout for the June 7 mayoral runoff between Gina Ortiz Jones and Rolando Pablos is on track to best the 9.2% from May’s packed contest.
SAN ANTONIO — A mayoral race that once featured 27 candidates vying to be San Antonio’s next leader has been whittled down to two—and if early voting figures are any indication, voters prefer having the clearer option at the polls.
The Bexar County Elections Department says 50,155 San Antonians made it to the polls over the first four days of early voting in the mayoral runoff election, which began Tuesday and runs through next June 3. That’s up a remarkable 68% from the first four days of early voting in May’s election, where no mayoral candidate was able to reach the 50% vote threshold to win outright.
Instead it was former U.S. Air Force Under Secretary Gina Ortiz Jones and former Texas Secretary of State Rolando Pablos who gathered the most votes, beating cybersecurities professional Beto Altamirano and four sitting City Council members to advance to the runoff.
That election is set for June 7. Four undecided City Council races will also reach the finish line.
As of Friday night, voter turnout for the mayoral runoff was just under 6%. That bodes well for June 7 after just 9.2% of the electorate made their voices heard in May, marking just the fourth time in the last 25 years that turnout for a mayoral election in San Antonio failed to reach 10%.
If you’re looking to cast your ballot in the runoff this weekend, here are the locations that have seen the fewest voters so far, and where you’re likely to be in and out the fastest.
- East Central High School (7173 FM 1628): 76 voters
- St. Philips College (1801 Martin Luther King Dr.): 89 voters
- Macedonia Baptist Church (963 SW 40th St.): 106 voters
- Palo Alto College (1400 W. Villaret Blvd.): 151 voters
- Copernicus Community Center (5003 Lord Road): 390 voters
- Claude Black Community Center (2805 E. Commerce St.): 424 voters
- Northwest Vista College (3535 N. Ellison Drive): 450 voters
- Schaefer Branch Library (6322 U.S. Highway 87 East): 470 voters
- Our Lady of the Lake University (411 SW 24th St.): 507 voters
- UTSA (1 UTSA Circle): 566 voters
As for the busiest? Here are the locations to avoid if you’re on a time crunch:
- Cody Branch Library (11441 Vance Jackson Road): 5,342 voters
- Brookhollow Branch Library (530 Heimer Road): 5,104 voters
- Maverick Branch Library (8700 Mystic Park): 3,172 voters
- Semmes Branch Library (15060 Judson Road): 3,117 voters
- Tobin Branch Library @ Oakwell (4134 Harry Wurzbach Road): 3,024 voters
The polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on June 7. Check kens5.com/election for updates and results.