A Bexar County elections clerk was assaulted at the Johnston Library polling center on Thursday night, Elections Administrator Jacque Callanen told reporters Friday morning.
The incident happened after the polls closed, and the staff member is back to work today, said Callanen, who sought to reassure voters about the security measures in place at the county’s 51 Early Voting centers.
“We have all the necessary security,” Callanen said. “Our poll sites are safe.”
The department plans to place a peace officer at the Johnston Library location following the reported assault, she added. As of Friday morning, Callanen said her staff was still checking in with their elections workers and deciding whether to station law enforcement officers at all of the polling centers.
“Normally you don’t have any police presence or sheriff’s presence, because they look at it as intimidation … but we are going to place one at this site,” she said of the Johnson Library location. “This is a first for us, and we’re just glad everybody’s safe.”
Because of the ongoing investigation by the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office, few details were provided about the incident. But as elections staff seeks to accommodate an unusually large number of early voters in the first days, Callanen said, some tension has risen in the lines while voters wait.
“We’ve had more voters than we’ve ever seen,” Callanen said. “As the lines are getting longer, obviously people are getting a little bit more testy, … but the officials are doing a fantastic job.”
