KSAT toured the Bexar County Elections Department with Elections Administrator Jacque Callanen. She discussed the vote counting that’s still going on.

A key position within Bexar County’s Elections Department is coming open just months before the 2024 general election.

SAN ANTONIO – Before Election Day kicks off, Bexar County will have a head start tallying the results. To keep up with the increase of mail-in ballots, Bexar County election workers will begin scanning them on Saturday morning, Elections Department Administrator Jacque Callanen said Friday. The additional time will allow election officials to give a more complete vote count when the polls close on Election Day. Registered voters 65 and older in Bexar County were automatically sent an absentee ballot application by the elections department. Voters can still drop off their mail-in ballots on Election Day at the Elections Department on South Frio Street.

SAN ANTONIO – UPDATE: The Bexar County Elections Office reported 33,111 voters cast their ballot on the first day of early voting on Tuesday compared to 34,020 who voted on the first day of early voting in 2018. (Original Story)A huge turnout on the first day of early voting led to Bexar County voters having to wait several hours to cast their ballots at some of the county’s 48 early voting locations. Lines of voters wrapped around buildings early on in the day at numerous sites, even those who showed up early were not guaranteed a quick ballot when voting began at 8 a.m. Tuesday morning. Voters are able to cast ballots at any of the early voting locations. You can find more information on where and how to vote early here.

Ramiro Saez, left, helps his son Lucas Saez, 22, fill out a voter registration form, Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2020, at the Miami-Dade County Elections Department in Doral, Fla. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis extended the state's voter registration deadline after heavy traffic crashed the state's online system and potentially prevented thousands of enrolling to cast ballots in next month's presidential election. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – A federal judge has denied a motion to extend voter registration in Florida even though a computer meltdown on the final day of registration might have prevented thousands of potential voters from taking part in November’s presidential election. “We’re disappointed that so many Floridians were disenfranchised because of the state’s failure to upkeep the online voter registration system,” Cabrera said. Florida’s online voter registration system serves the state’s 67 counties and became operational in October 2017.

Secretary of State Laurel Lee issued a statement late Tuesday saying it does not appear that bad actors caused Monday's collapse of registration system. Monday's trouble with the voter registration website stoked concern, but there was relief that the cause was far less sinister. Its site would send Floridians to the state’s registration website. The statewide voter registration system, which serves Florida’s 67 counties, went online in October 2017. “The online voter registration site failed because it was designed to fail,” Holder said.

SAN ANTONIO – Bexar County Elections Department Administrator Jacquelyn Callanen was excited about the increase in voter registrations while giving the latest numbers during a news conference on Monday. Since 2016, Bexar County has registered 112,951 new voters as of Monday, Callanen said. In total, 1,162,040 voters are currently registered in Bexar County. “That’s like having the population of Comal County be here in Bexar County over those four years,” Callanen said. “San Antonio is growing by leaps and bounds.”Callanen hoped that the total number of registered voters would swell to 1.75 million by the registration deadline on Oct. 5.

(AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)WASHINGTON The Department of Homeland Security's cybersecurity agency this week hosted a three-day tabletop exercise aimed at helping local, state and federal officials prepare for and respond to worst-case scenarios on Election Day. It comes at a particularly fraught moment as the nation edges closer toward a contentious presidential contest when an expected surge in absentee balloting is likely to delay the reporting of results and test election officials in profound, even unexpected ways. On the federal level, Masterson said, one of the continued areas for improvement is pushing out information on threats to local election officials in a timely and actionable way. What we keep hearing from the election officials is, we appreciate you sharing information with us, but can you make it so that it's shareable broadly, Masterson said. One additional benefit of the exercise is the personal connections that officials can build before a crisis occurs, said David Stafford, the elections county supervisor in Escambia County, Florida.