SAN ANTONIO — Bexar County Clerk Lucy Adame-Clark Thursday received 91 absentee voter applications that should've gone to a different county office at a different address.
She says she fears more are coming.
Mail-in ballot requests must go to the Early Voting Clerk at 1103 S. Frio St., Suite 200, San Antonio, TX 78207.
Clark says she can get the misplaced paperwork to the appropriate administrator, but the process is time-consuming. The clerk's office must establish legal 'chain-of-command' to ensure application integrity.
She is concerned, she says, that her office will not be able to get future requests to the appropriate officials before Texas's Feb. 18 absentee application deadline.
"I'm getting afraid for the voters because we want to make sure they have the correct information," she said. "If it doesn't get done correctly, we as a county failed. We failed."
The elections administrator must receive the application by Feb. 18. Officials cannot accept late paperwork, even if it is postmarked prior to the deadline.
A mailer from U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales's campaign may be responsible for some of the confusion. It erroneously instructed voters to send their applications to the county clerk's office.
In parts of Gonzales's massive congressional district, county clerks are the elections administrators. Bexar County is different.
The campaign says it made a mistake.