Early voting ended Friday; turnout appears slightly higher than recent elections [Video]

SAN ANTONIO – Heading into the 12th and final early voting Friday, 541,000 people have already cast a ballot in Bexar County.

While it’s a big number far above recent elections, it’s actually much closer to a regular turnout when looking at it as a percentage of turnout. Bexar County has added 250,000 voters since the 2016 election. So, in terms of raw numbers, turnout is all but guaranteed to be higher.

This year’s turnout between in-person and mail ballots stands at 41.8%, compared to 39.3% and 40.6% in the 2020 and 2016 elections at the same point in time.

Early voting in 2016 ended its 12th day of early voting with 41.8% turnout and nearly 437,000 votes cast.

Early voting in 2020 ended its 12th day of early voting with 35.5% turnout and nearly 422,000 votes cast. Because of the pandemic, though, it lasted an additional six days and reached 57.2% turnout with 680,000 votes by the end.

In a …