After Uvalde shooting, San Antonio-area schools don’t want voters on campus during November election

In the wake of the Uvalde shooting, many schools don’t want voters on campus during the November election, according to Bexar County Elections Administrator Jacque Callanen. Schools make up more than two-thirds of Election Day polling sites, and Callanen said security has been a concern in the past. But, she said, it’s intensified since the May 24 tragedy. “Guess what? They don’t want us. And we understand that after Uvalde,” Callanen told members of the Bexar County Election Board this week. Some schools prefer to have the voting station in the gymnasium or another location at the rear of the campus. But that creates an access problem for elderly and disabled voters and a potential legal liability for the county.

Callanen has asked state officials to declare Nov. 8 a teacher work day so children would not be at school, she said. “They’re all still working on their calendars right now,” Callanen said. “We don’t have a final answer on that.” The week after the shooting that killed 19 children and two teachers, Callanen and her staff members met with State Sen. José Menéndez to discuss concerns from the school districts. The state election code says a public building such as a school “cannot tell us no,” she said. But the county has never forced the issue. Of the 1,212,924 registered voters in Bexar County as of Monday, more than 725,000 could participate in the election, with a contentious race for governor and other high-profile races on the ballot, she predicted. In the last four years, about 108,000 new voters have registered. “People are registering to vote like crazy,” Callanen said.