SAN ANTONIO — A task force created by Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones released a report Wednesday recommending nine strategies to increase voter participation in San Antonio and Bexar County through year-round civic engagement efforts.
The report recommends expanding voter outreach, improving access to election information and polling locations, and creating new city programs to encourage civic participation beyond election periods.
Jones said the city should play a larger role in promoting voter participation.
“The mark of a citizen is voting,” Jones said. “At the federal level and at the state level, there are some really strong efforts to make it harder for people to be heard at the ballot box.”
The report recommends transforming the city’s Communications and Engagement Department into an Office of Civic Participation, creating a nonprofit civic engagement coordination roundtable, establishing a city-supported civic engagement fund, launching a culture of voting initiative, setting annual civic participation goals, expanding polling locations during municipal elections, creating a centralized voter information hub, and standardizing dormitory addresses for voter registration at local colleges and universities.
The proposal to establish an Office of Civic Participation would require City Council approval.
Task force facilitator Drew Galloway said the proposed office would centralize the city’s public engagement efforts and provide residents with a single source for civic information.
The report also identifies low voter participation among younger residents, families in low-turnout neighborhoods and communities with historically limited engagement with government as a challenge.
The task force cited recent voter turnout data to support its recommendations. Bexar County has about 1.3 million registered voters, including nearly 850,000 in San Antonio.
Less than 10% of registered voters participated in the May 2025 municipal election, which included all City Council seats. Voter turnout increased to about 17% in the June mayoral runoff that elected Jones. By comparison, turnout reached nearly 60% during the November 2024 general election.
The Bexar County Elections Department administers elections, including voter registration, polling locations and election results.
Jones announced plans to create the task force in February. She presented the proposal to the City Council in April, but council members delayed formal action. The city announced the task force’s formation in May.
Jones said the group was established as a task force rather than a formal commission because no ordinance was required.
Some recommendations could require additional city funding. San Antonio projects a multimillion-dollar budget deficit over the next two fiscal years and is considering options that include increasing property taxes, raising some city fees or reducing services.
Last year, Jones also led a 6-5 City Council vote to move San Antonio’s municipal elections from May of odd-numbered years to November of odd-numbered years.
