Early Ballots Are Sealed, Logged and Counted: How Early Voting Works in Cibolo

You may have heard the rumor moving through the country: vote early, and your ballot gets thrown out before it is ever counted.

That claim is false. A ballot cast early in person follows the same locked, sealed, logged, and counted route as every other ballot in your county, and it ends in the same central counting station.

Separately, the San Antonio Express-News reported October 6 that some Bexar County voters reported missing or misassigned mail ballots. That involved mail ballots, not walking into a polling place and casting an early ballot in person.

Early voting in Texas opens Monday, October 19, 2026, and runs through Friday, October 30, 2026. Election Day is Tuesday, November 3, 2026.

Checked in and sealed

You can cast your early ballot at any early-voting location in the county where you are registered, not only the single precinct assigned to you for Election Day.

When you vote, you check in on a combination form or in the electronic poll book. That check-in becomes the written record that ties your vote into the count.

Your marked ballot goes into a ballot box that, under the Texas Election Code, must have two locks using two different keys and be sealed so that any unauthorized opening — or any ballot slipped into the slot — would be detectable.

It is not set aside to be discarded. It is sealed, stored, and logged from the moment it leaves your hand.

Where it goes overnight

During early voting, voted ballots at a polling place must be kept in a locked room accessible only to election officers, or delivered at the close of each day by an election officer or a designated law-enforcement officer to the main early-voting polling place.

Every transfer of custody is written down on a dated chain-of-custody form. It shows the container, its seal or serial number, where it came from and where it is going, the time, and the printed names and signatures of the person handing it off and the person receiving it — checked by at least two people.

In Guadalupe County, early-voting and Election Day ballots travel through the same Elections Administration Office intake: staff verify a ballot bin’s seals against the location’s seal log, then place the bin in a secure ballot storage area.

When it is counted

Early in-person ballots may begin to be counted at the end of early voting in a county of 100,000 or more people, or when the polls open on Election Day in a smaller county. But the results may not be released until the polls close at 7:00 p.m. on November 3, no matter when counting begins.

Both early and Election Day ballots flow into the same central counting station and secure storage, so an early ballot is tabulated in the same place and the same way as a ballot cast that morning.

The Early Voting Ballot Board that processes early ballots is appointed from lists submitted by the political parties, and seals on an early-voting ballot box must be signed by the presiding judge together with another board member from a different political party.

The fact that results do not appear until after 7:00 p.m. is a rule about when numbers may be released, not a sign that early ballots were set aside.

The count has to add up

After tabulation, the central counting station presiding judge must provide a written reconciliation comparing the number of voters who checked in against the total number of ballots cast, plus any spoiled ballots.

A ballot that had been thrown out would leave exactly the kind of gap this comparison is designed to expose: the number of votes would fall short of the number of people who signed in.

The process layers overlapping checks — sealed locks and numbered logs, at least two officers on each transfer, and a bipartisan board signing the seals — so no single person can quietly remove a ballot.

Early voting around Cibolo

Cibolo straddles two counties — it sits in the southwest corner of Guadalupe County and extends into the northeast corner of Bexar County — so your ballot is administered by whichever county you are registered in, not simply by your home address.

Guadalupe County registered voters around Cibolo can vote early at Cibolo Fire Station #2, 3864 Cibolo Valley Drive, Cibolo, TX 78108. Hours are:

• 8:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m. October 19–23
• 7:00 a.m.–7:00 p.m. October 24
• noon–6:00 p.m. October 25
• 7:00 a.m.–7:00 p.m. October 26–30

Bexar County registered voters may vote at any Bexar County early-voting center October 19–30. Hours are:

• 8:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m. October 19–23
• 7:00 a.m.–7:00 p.m. October 24
• noon–6:00 p.m. October 25
• 7:00 a.m.–7:00 p.m. October 26–30

Guadalupe County Elections is at 3251 N. State Highway 123, Seguin, TX 78155, and can be reached at (830) 303-6363. Bexar County Elections can be reached at 210-335-VOTE (8683).

The bottom line for a Cibolo voter: an early vote is recorded, locked, sealed, logged, and counted by a bipartisan board through the same central counting station as every Election Day ballot. Nothing in that process supports the idea that an early ballot gets thrown out.