Bexar County doesn’t have a poll wait-time tracker, so San Antonio voters made their own
Unlike other major Texas counties, Bexar County voters do not have access to a wait-time map, but locals have found a crowdsourced solution.
In Travis, the county clerk’s website has a map with polling locations pinned as either green, yellow or red depending on estimated wait times. Harris has one, too. In Bexar County, locals have a grassroots operation, since the county does not provide a similar option.
The two day-old public Facebook group dubbed “Bexar County Voting Location Wait Times.” The group is free of political statements, but is a rolling list of locals sharing the polling location they chose and how long the process took. Some post screenshots of their phone timer, others share photos of lines. Based off the more than 1,000 members added in day, the group is proving to be a much-needed utility. Lily Casura, one of the creators of the group, said she’s been told it’s a “godsend.”
She said she was thinking of a solution for local voters with co-creator Queta Rodriguez. Originally, a more complicated method, like a Google Doc, was being tossed around. As she was making her coffee Wednesday morning, the idea of a Facebook group, where members could be added easily, dawned on Casura.
The group launched shortly after. Matthew Montgomery and Mario Bravo, who were also interested in finding a way to simplify the voting process for Bexar County, have joined as admins of the group.
She feels the page is filling a gap that she hoped an official city entity would have remedied.
Casura said she saw how thousands of San Antonio came together during the onset of the coronavirus pandemic with the Grocery Supply Update Facebook group, which alerted residents to restocks of essentials, like sanitizer and toilet paper, and modeled the voting wait time format after it.
“People posts pictures and posts about their experiences, mostly very positive, and some of us have even taken to sharing screengrabs of our phone timers to show little time it took — all to encourage others to vote,” Casura explained.
Casura said she has endured long wait times during past elections and didn’t want the winding lines pictured on social media to be a deterrent for voters.
“I really wanted other people not to have to go through that, or be tempted to give up,” she said.
Though a record number of mail-in ballots were received in Bexar County by the first day of early voting, the local in-person turnout fell short of the records neighboring counties were experiencing. Bexar reported 33,111 in-person voters Tuesday, a few thousands less than 2016’s 35,341.
Along with posting updates on wait times, members also share helpful information for voters with disabilities, like going to the front of the line or calling the election office in advance for curbside voting.
The administrators are also noticing a few front runners for quickest voting times.
“I think we ought to have a daily competition for best place to vote,” Casura said. “It’s possible Frank Garrett Community Center would win it.”
Early voting, which allows residents to cast ballots at any official polling location, ends on Oct. 30. Election Day is Nov. 3. The grassroots group can be joined here.
Madalyn Mendoza covers news and puro pop culture for MySA.com | [email protected] | @maddyskye
