Callers are demanding and demeaning, calling staff incompetent and swearing at them because they have not yet received their ballots, according to Elections Administrator Jacque Callanen.
Elections officials keep a record of exactly when a ballot was mailed, but some callers have accused workers of lying to them.
"I've actually told my staff — which I wouldn't have believed I'd do it — I'm telling them that they can say, 'I don't deserve to be spoken to like this, I'm ending the call,'" Callanen said Wednesday. "I can tell you the staff members who have had to do it are upset because that's not our norm, and it never should be our norm."
Callanen said there are less than 40,000 mail ballot applications, a small amount compared to the 125,000 applications for the presidential election.
As of Wednesday, 38,000 ballots have been sent out, and 6,000 are back in-house, Callanen said.
But the complicated absentee voting process is just one headache for the staff ahead of the Nov. 8 election.
Commissioners Court responded earlier this week to a judge's ruling requiring Callanen and her staff to open several more polling locations on Election Day — 302 sites compared with the 267 planned on Oct. 5.
"The staff is scurrying," Callanen said.
The Texas Organizing Project last month sued the Bexar County Elections Department over its plans to reduce the number of Election Day polling sites — a move the liberal activist group argued would make it harder for minority voters to cast ballots.
Election officials are training judges and recruiting to make sure they are ready to man every site.
"It's getting close. We're almost there," Callanen said. "We've had a number of people just reach out to us. My fantastic trainer is almost exhausted because she's having continual training classes."
Callanen said this is important because their policy is not to have a voting center without an election judge with experience working an election. In Bexar County, registered voters can cast their ballot at any location they choose.
Four school districts have declared Election Day a school holiday — including North Side, Northeast, East Central and Southwest independent school districts — to allow voters to cast their ballot at campus polling sites without jeopardizing student safety. One additional school district has provided "pushback," but Callanen said she understands that some districts don't want the added security risk.
"We want everybody to be safe," Callanen said. "We want the students to be safe in the schools. We want our election officials to be safe — and especially for the voters."
The final list of 302 Election Day sites was unavailable Wednesday, and 51 early vote centers are scheduled to open next week.
"The polls will open Monday, bright and early," Callanen said, looking up at a clear blue sky on a cool day outside the elections headquarters, a butterfly hovering over the news conference. "I hope we have a good day like this."
Asked about Election Day security, Callanen said plans are in place to respond to any disturbances, but she did not elaborate on what they are.
She did, however, say that anyone arrested for disturbance or breach of peace must be allowed to vote first before being taken to jail, as mandated in the Texas elections code.
Callanen said the staff expects between 650,000 and 700,000 people to vote, though many of them may not rush out at the start of early voting.
To that end, staff will still be given protective equipment despite the decreased risk of COVID.
Callanen said they also expect more poll monitors who will be outside the 100-foot mark.
"It's an important election," Callanen said. "There's just a lot of emotion behind it. So, you know, we're going to prepare our election judges, how to soften things, how to pay attention. I think that's all necessary things that we're going to be training them on Friday."
(c)2022 the San Antonio Express-News. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
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