Voting devices are primed for action and hundreds of Bexar County poll workers are prepped for a busy day today, when a record turnout is expected for the first day of early balloting in the Nov. 8 election.

Forty-three early polling sites are open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. today, when voters can finally weigh in on the presidential race, elect federal, state and county officials, and decide local matters including school bond elections.

The general election of 2016 is heading to the record books. An unprecedented number of voters — 1,040,590 — were registered in Bexar County as of Friday, with a larger, final number expected today. Late last week, election officials were processing the last remaining voter registration applications that arrived in compliance with an Oct. 11 deadline.

Early voting, which ends Nov. 4, is predicted to yield 65 percent of the county’s total vote, which could range from 500,000 to 600,000, officials said last week.

At least 150,000 in-person votes are expected on Election Day, when 303 polling sites will operate, County Judge Nelson Wolff said. He joined state and local officials in urging the public to vote early, when there’s usually less waiting.

“It takes the stress off of Election Day,” Wolff said.

The 43 early voting sites, also a record, include public libraries, community centers, school offices and other public areas in all corners of the county. This year, the often-changing lineup of early voting sites includes polls at the Alamo Stadium Convocation Center, Palo Alto College, Northwest Vista College and the main campus of the University of Texas at San Antonio.

Texas is one of 37 states with early voting — and one of the last to start the process. The Associated Press reported Friday that 4.4 million people nationwide have already voted in 34 states at a pace far exceeding 2012, the year of the most recent presidential election.

Some Texans already have voted — by mail. In Bexar County, hundreds of mail ballots have been cast and await counting. Members of the military, senior citizens, the disabled and others are voting by mail, again in unprecedented numbers. The deadline for requesting a mail ballot is Friday.

The county’s voter rolls have grown by more than 140,000 this year, a phenomenon also seen statewide. Texas registrations are approaching 80 percent of the 19 million people of voting age, a number that includes some ineligible noncitizens and felons.

Texas Secretary of State Carlos Cascos, the state’s chief elections official, said he’s pleased by the high registration numbers and is crisscrossing Texas to encourage voting and to explain photo identification requirements.

“It’s not that complicated,” he said. “Those who’ve been presenting a photo ID such as a driver license should still do so.” Those without one of seven allowed forms of photo ID “can still vote. They fill out an impediment declaration basically saying … there’s been a reasonable impediment” to obtaining or possessing one of the seven forms.

Those who sign a declaration then will be allowed to vote if they have one of several other documents, including a utility bill, bank statement, government document or a blue voter registration certificate.

“I trust the voter to do the right thing, but that declaration is signed under penalty of perjury,” Cascos said.

“The election judge does not have the authority to question that document. As an example, if someone uses the reasoning they don’t have transportation, they’ve been unable to obtain one of these photo IDs … the (election) judge cannot ask, ‘How did you get here?’” Cascos said.

“If they say ‘I’ve been disabled,’ they can’t be asked, ‘How did you walk in here?’” he said. “That declaration is unchallengeable”

Cascos, a Republican and a former Cameron County judge appointed by Gov. Greg Abbott, dismissed the notion of a “rigged” election, saying that’s “highly unlikely, very improbable.”

“If someone would want to do something like that, they would have to figure out how to hack into 254 different locations,” Cascos said, referring to the number of Texas counties.

With vote security concerns swirling nonetheless, Cascos said voters could encounter poll monitors unaffiliated with county election staff. Last week, Bexar GOP Chairman Robert Stovall said his party has seen a surge in interest among volunteer poll watchers, with scores offering to monitor the process.

With only 43 early polling sites, compared with the 303 on Election Day, candidates often strive to have a meaningful presence at many of the early polls. Many deploy supporters to greet voters and hold signs, sometimes getting vocal about their support.

When things get out of hand, sheriff’s deputies are summoned. In the March primaries, deputies were dispatched four times to incidents including a fight between rival campaign workers and a heated argument between poll judges. Those were in addition to instances when poll workers were insulted and yelled at by irate voters, election officials said.

“We do everything we can to see the election is run right,” Wolff said.

“There’s always something that is going to go wrong,” he conceded.

jgonzalez@express-news.net

Twitter: @johnwgonzalez