SAN ANTONIO – Even as more litigation swirls around the state’s new redistricting maps, Bexar County Elections Administrator Jacque Callanen said, “At this point, all systems go” when it comes to 2022 elections.
That is unless the courts rule the maps weaken the voting strength of the state’s growing minority population, Callanen said.
“If the litigation says ‘stop and stay on the old lines’, then we just take all the work we’ve done over the last six weeks and put it to the side,” she said.
If so, she said, depending on when those rulings are made, the March 1 Primary and early voting that starts on Feb. 14 would be conducted the same way as the November 2021 Election.
“Same precincts, the same sites, everything we just did in November, just like nothing changes,” Callanen said.
Essentially, she said, the same goes for the new voting restrictions which also are tied up in the courts.
She said the Texas Secretary of State last Friday released new mail-in ballots, applications and statement of residency cards that voters will be using.
However, if the courts side with the plaintiffs, Callanen said she still has what was used previously for absentee voting.
“If something changes, we’ll have our new stock sitting here, and the old stock sitting here,” Callanen said. “And, conduct an election the way we always do.”
She said after the redistricting maps were adopted by the Texas Legislature, attorneys hired by the Bexar County Commissioners Court overlayed the lines drawn by the state on the existing lines here.
As an example, Callanen said Bexar County has gone from 734 precincts to 770.
As a result, Callanen said voters will need to check their new blue voter registration cards to see whether their precincts and districts have changed.
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