SAN ANTONIO – Lidia Martinez decided to vote early after her mail-in ballot didn’t arrive. She was worried it was late and called the Bexar County Election’s office.
“I mailed it three weeks ago, and, I called to make sure that my application was in, and they told me they had not received it,” she said. She says two other seniors told her they had a similar experience.
“That’s why I was very concerned, because if this is happening to us, I mean, how many other people have not received their mail ballot?” she said.
Precinct 4 Bexar County Commissioner Tommy Calvert says he’s been looking into similar concerns about problems at the polls and mail-in ballots.
“There have been a number of folks who have not gotten mail ballots, and it’s getting very late,” he said. He was in a call with the Texas Civil Rights Project Election Protection who is looking at these calls. “I encourage people to do everything they can and not let anyone turn them away from voting,” he said. He urges anyone with concerns about voting to call 866-OUR-VOTE.
Over the phone election administrator Jacque Callanen told KSAT she was not made aware of any complaints regarding bail-in ballots. She explained there was an influx of applications sent at the beginning of February. She said her staff worked through the weekend to ensure all the ballots were mailed out.
She says early voting ends Friday. Mail-in ballots can be directly dropped off at the elections office on Frio Street. Any mail-in ballot postmarked by election day, March 5 will be counted even if it arrives a day after election.