A large backlog of new voter registration applications still haven’t been processed ahead of the Nov. 4 election — blowing through Bexar County leaders’ goal of having them mostly done by the end of last week.

Elections Administrator Michele Carew said Tuesday even after transitioning to a new state-run voter registration system, there was a two-and-a-half day delay getting up to speed.

“We’re literally working around the clock right now to ensure that that does take place,” Carew said. “We know that we still have [more applications] to work on, but we’re still very optimistic that we’re going to have it done in time.”

The voter registration deadline for this November’s election was Monday, Oct. 6.

Carew said the county has until the start of early voting, on Oct. 20, to get the remaining 25,000 applications processed.

New voters may not have received their voter registration cards in the mail, she said, but can still vote using their driver’s license or other forms of legal identification.

Carew took over leading Bexar County’s Elections Department in March, replacing an elections administrator who had held the position for more than two decades.

Unlike other county departments, the Elections Department reports directly to county commissioners, meaning there’s little oversight of its day-to-day operations.

County Judge Peter Sakai said last week he had full confidence in Carew to manage the transition, but did not respond to a request for comment in time for publication after the original processing goals weren’t met.

Stressful times

The Elections Department has had an exhausting couple of weeks working through backlogged applications, leaning on temporary workers while longtime employees hit their limit.

That dynamic worries some voting rights advocates who say the problem isn’t being taken seriously enough.

Bexar County was thrust into a chaotic transition process when its longtime voter registration vendor, Votec, went under this summer — at the same time the state’s system was undergoing a massive update.

At the end of September that meant roughly 52,000 applications were sitting untouched waiting for the new system to come online — ahead of an election that means more for Bexar County than many other Texas municipalities.

Work is going quickly now, Carew said, but staff is exhausted from long days. Other counties are in the same boat.

This week the department’s second in command, James Huerta, put in his two-weeks notice this week, Carew confirmed. A public information officer who Carew hired when she arrived earlier this year also took a job in another county, amid other staff departures as well.

Bexar County brought on 30 temporary employees to help, and eight more are coming on later this week, Carew said. Staff is working from 7 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. every night until the backlog is taken care of.

“There’s a lot of staff members that are doing voter registration duties that are not necessarily in their wheelhouse,” Carew said. “Everyone is tired. We’re not made to sit here and work for 12-hour days.”

Next month, Bexar County voters will decide whether to help fund a $1.3 billion Spurs arena and a makeover for the teams’ current Eastside home that will be used by the rodeo — known as Props A and B.

Carew said the department stayed open late on Monday night to accept any last-minute applications from voters trying to participate in that election, but only two people came by.