Monday Musings #38: Low Voter Turnout in Spurs City USA

Week one of early voting in the Nov. 4 Bexar County election concluded with only 62,937 registered voters turning out to the polls. Another 2,600 mail-in ballots were received, and by the looks of it, even more mail-in ballots were returned to county election officials as undelivered. 

It all adds up to about 5-6% of the county’s 1.3 million registered voters having turned out so far. A second week of early voting that concludes Oct. 31 could see that figure double, which means an average turnout on Election Day will still amount to an election in which only one in five registered voters bothered to participate.

It makes me wonder if countries that legally require citizens to vote in elections are on to something. Much of the world’s population has never participated in a free and fair election, and many would kill, literally, for the right. Here in the United States, it takes a presidential race to get more than half the eligible people to vote. Any other election sees lower percentages of voters.

Ballot language in Texas is legalistic and confusing, sometimes intentionally confusing. There are 17 constitutional amendments on the ballot this election, some of them truly frivolous. Many voters will skip at least some of them or resort to guessing.

The county’s Proposition A, expanding and improving the facilities at the Frost Bank Center and Freeman Coliseum on the Eastside, and Proposition B, providing up to $311 million in county visitor taxes to help build a new sports area at Hemisfair for the Spurs, deserve a far better turnout and voter support.

Yet state elected officials have injected another dose of partisan politics into the process by passing legislation earlier this year requiring county election officials to include a boldface advisory atop each proposition that reads, “This is a tax increase.”

The same advisory has been in effect for school district bond elections for six years. This year, legislators added local government elections. If clarity were the goal, county officials would have leeway to change the wording to a more explanatory, “This is a modest increase in the maximum 2% visitor tax as allowed by state law.” 

Clarity is not the goal of state elected officials, and neither is promoting voter turnout. State elected officials have repeatedly moved to restrain the authority of local officials to set and approve tax rates, and they know the required language will suppress voter support. If sowing confusion and doubt were the goal, state legislators have yet again succeeded.

Over the last several legislative sessions, lawmakers have also blocked almost every initiative by local officials to make it easier for people to vote. Since local officials began innovating during the pandemic, the state response has been to counterattack by limiting eligibility for mail-in voting, redefining what constitutes acceptable voter ID, and stopping 24-hour voting and the use of drive-through polling sites.

Still, voters have an 11-day early voting period, and there are 49 different early voting sites spread for convenience throughout the county. It shouldn’t present an undue hardship for people to get out and vote. It only takes minutes.

Much is at stake in this election, notably the future of professional sports in San Antonio. Specifically, securing the presence of the Spurs here for decades to come. Some in the opposition, notably Mayor Gina Jones, who has spent very little of her adult life living and working in the city, claim unconvincingly that a better deal can be negotiated if Proposition B fails.

I can’t think of a worse gamble. San Antonio is a regional city and a regional sports market, and cities with bigger economies, more corporate headquarters, and populations with greater disposable income are all in the hunt for an NBA franchise, especially one with the winning record and reputation of the Spurs.

Take Las Vegas. It was not that long ago that professional sports organizations shunned Sin City to keep gambling and pro sports from officially pairing up. Those days are long gone. Las Vegas now has an NFL team, a world champion NHL team, and a WNBA team coached by former Spurs assistant coach Becky Hammon, and in the near future will add an MLB team. All that’s missing, as former Mayor Henry Cisneros recently warned at a literary event at the Central Library, is an NBA franchise.

Las Vegas has proven over and over that it will pay whatever it takes to get the job done.

Seattle is still smarting over the loss of the Supersonics to Oklahoma City, and Austin is Austin, which means the city 75 miles to the north of San Antonio will do whatever it takes to add new amenities to a city enriched by its flagship University of Texas, the presence and power of state government, and its tech economy and growing population of billionaires.

It’s certain that the Spurs will not renew the team’s lease on the Frost Bank Center after it expires in 2031. Team owners probably need to decide no later than a year or two from now where it will be playing in 2031-2032. It will take several years to go from local approval to a new open arena, regardless of where it is located. Given the right deal, they might even be willing to pay the county an early exit penalty to occupy a new venue as soon as one is built and opened.

Have you been following Mayor Jones’ first months in office? Are you confident the mayor can lead a successful negotiation in a post-election environment? I wish she had thrown her support behind City Manager Erik Walsh and the non-binding term sheet he and his senior team negotiated with the Spurs.

The time for San Antonio is now. Vote Yes and San Antonio can focus on supporting a team that feels like it is about to play its way back into the playoffs and contention. Yes, it’s early, but we have at least one superstar, perhaps one or two others in the making, and a new coach. It’s a new era for the five-time world champions. Bringing the team back home to Hemisfair feels right, even for reasons that have nothing to do with sports.

The election is all about people investing in their own city’s future well-being, in continuing robust economic development and job growth, building a more vibrant downtown as attractive to locals as visitors, and adding more public amenities like the new entertainment zones that will envelope the new San Antonio Missions ballpark in Downtown West, and a new Spurs arena at Hemisfair.

Those urban amenities are crucial to attracting young professionals to move here, and in persuading our own children to make San Antonio their home rather than choosing other cities to pursue their careers and their own families.

I go into Nov. 4 confident that voters will make the right choice, but I also expect a close election. That’s why turnout is so crucial. I voted at Lion’s Field, always one of the most visited early polling sites. Yet I was in and out of there in less than 15 minutes.

Many people have been convinced, deceptively, that the funds being used to enhance the San Antonio & Stock Show & Rodeo and to build the new Spurs arena will come out of their pockets. Not one penny in local taxes will go to Props A or B, and anyone who tells you otherwise is desperate to win at any cost, including misrepresenting the facts.

San Antonio remains a city on the rise on Nov. 5 if people vote Yes. I don’t want to even contemplate what kind of second-class city we risk becoming if people vote No and invite other cities to start fighting to build the next Spurs arena.

Turn out, Vote Yes.