Velia Salinas keeps busy. She hasn’t had a 9-to-5 job in decades, but during the coronavirus pandemic, she has been sewing cloth face masks for “anyone who wants them” and taking care of her three dogs, two cats, and two birds.
“I enjoy them,” she said. “And they’re spoiled. I came to the kitchen to use the phone, and they’re around me right now.”
At 95, Salinas is the longest-tenured election judge at the Bexar County Elections Department. She worked her first election in 1948, long before election judges and clerks were paid and when votes were cast by punching holes into paper. But this year, Bexar County Elections Administrator Jacque Callanen told Salinas that she couldn’t work the July primary runoff election because the coronavirus pandemic made the risk to her health too high.
“I told Jacque … I’m 100 percent [healthy] and I’m 100 percent bored,” Salinas said, laughing.
Callanen said Salinas originally fought the directive, but Callanen refused to send her oldest election judge to the polls at a time when positive cases and COVID-19 hospitalizations are surging locally.
“I said, ‘Velia, I’m not putting you out there,’” Callanen said. “I said, ‘You can’t, you can’t.’ And she got mad at me. We’ll make up.”
Ultimately, it took both of Salinas’ physician sons to persuade her to stay home for her safety. One of them lives in San Antonio and visits her regularly.
“I don’t go out the house,” she said. “My son wouldn’t allow it.”
Increasing the risk to election workers’ health is Gov. Greg Abbott’s decision to exempt polling locations from a statewide mask mandate. The governor said he did so for “constitutional purposes.” But about 60 percent of Bexar County’s election officials are over the age of 65, and the average age is 72, according to Callanen. This puts most of the judges and clerks staffing voting locations at a higher risk of the novel coronavirus.
In recent years, Salinas regularly has served as the head election judge at the John Igo Library polling location in Northwest San Antonio, where she runs a tight ship, Callanen said. During a typical election, Salinas helps voters sign in and gives them instructions on how to cast their ballots.
“I go where they need me,” Salinas said. “I used to work all over the city with the other [elections] administrator, but Jacque just gave me one place, which I like.”
Salinas, who typically works through early voting and on election day, is no stranger to hard work . After she graduated from high school, she worked as an airplane mechanic for 35 years at Kelly Air Force Base. She transitioned into retail after a friend offered her a job at Dillard’s, where she sold couture dresses for 20 years.