Early voting to end Friday

Correction: In the Feb. 21 print version of The Rider, Texas gubernatorial candidate Delilah Barrios was incorrectly identified as a member of the Republican Party. Barrios is a member of the Green Party.

Early voting for the March 1 primaries continues through Friday, as voters decide who will be their party’s nominees for Texas governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, U.S. and state representatives as well as dozens of local officials.

Early voting started Feb. 14 at 18 polling locations in Cameron County and 28 in Hidalgo County, including the UTRGV Edinburg and Brownsville campuses. 

As of last Thursday, 6,850 had voted in Cameron County and 14,160 in Hidalgo County.  

Remi Garza, Cameron County elections administrator, said there was an interesting first-day turnout. A total of 1,369 Democrats had voted, which was higher than the number of first-day voters in the 2018 primary. 

In the Republican primary, 460 people voted on the first day, which, according to Garza, was a significant increase from the 200 voters in the last gubernatorial race. 

“So, you know, there’s a lot of interest,” he said. “We’re not sure if that’s going to hold throughout the rest of the early voting period and through Election Day, but it certainly is encouraging. We have had a significant increase in registrations since then. So, there are a lot more people who are eligible to vote, but we’ve seen that trend happening each election cycle. We’re getting more and more people to vote.”

A total of 3,869 people cast a ballot Feb. 14 in Hidalgo County, according to Hilda Salinas, assistant director of the Hidalgo County Elections Department. 

“Compared to previous gubernatorial elections, we did have about 6,000, so it is a little bit less,” Salinas said. “But, you know, we encourage people to get out and vote.”

While polling sites have been offered on the UTRGV Edinburg campus in previous elections, the Brownsville campus recently regained its polling site in the Interdisciplinary Academic Building after the university advocated to have it in this election cycle.

Lauren Contreras, assistant director for Student Activities, said the Civic Engagement Alliance is doing its part to promote student voting by hanging posters on campus, posting on social media and participating in involvement fairs.

This week, the CEA will host a Boots to the Ballot event on the Edinburg and Brownsville campuses to encourage students to vote as part of its Get Out the Vote Rally.

“We are also hosting a Meet the Candidate series where we’re bringing as many gubernatorial candidates as accept our invitation to come to the campus,” Contreras said.

The CEA hosted Democratic gubernatorial hopefuls Joy Diaz on Feb. 8 and Beto O’Rourke last Friday on the Edinburg campus. The organization recently confirmed that Green Party Delilah Barrios, also a candidate for governor, will speak from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. Friday at the Student Union PlainsCapital Bank Theater on the Edinburg campus, with a live stream available in Student Union’s Salón Gardenia on the Brownville campus. 

Registered voters may cast a ballot in person at early voting sites or by mail. On Election Day March 1, voters must go to their respective precinct to vote. 

On Sept. 5, 2021, Gov. Greg Abbott signed into law Senate Bill 1, which states that 24-hour polling, drive-thru voting and early voting on Sundays would be cut. The law also decreased the number of polling sites for counties.

Garza said voters who applied for a ballot by mail had to go through additional steps before the application was accepted. The deadline to submit an absentee ballot application was last Friday.  

“We encourage everybody to read the instructions that are provided as carefully as they can to prevent any sort of delays in the acceptance of the return,” Garza said. “And I think it’s caused some confusion because, you know, information came out late from the state for us to make sure we were complying with the code and then our interpretation of the changes was correct.”

He said Cameron County set up a process to help voters secure their ballot in case they made any mistakes.

Salinas said there are changes to curbside voting. Poll watchers now have the authority to view the voter’s ballot when the voter is being assisted by an election worker.

Voters must take one of seven forms of identification: a Texas driver’s license, Texas election ID certificate, Texas handgun license, U.S. citizenship certificate with a photo, Texas personal ID card, U.S. military ID with photo or U.S. passport.

Salinas said because Hidalgo County had electronic voting machines, the county had to retrofit the voting machines to a “paper-based system” because of Senate Bill 598, which went into effect Sept. 1, 2021.

“We are now a Hart [InterCivic] Verity Duo hybrid voting machine,” she said. “So, you do make your selections digitally and you insert a blank paper ballot. Once you are done and have completed your voting process, it will then print your selections on a paper ballot. Then, you will take that paper ballot and enter it into a scanner, where your selections will be tabulated.”

This is the first time Hidalgo County implements voting machines. Salinas asks that voters be patient as the process will take time. 

“Again, knowing what you’re going to be selecting, you know, informing yourself on what your ballot would look like, using our sample ballot lookup tool, will help speed up the process in regards to that,” she said. 

—Rider Sports Reporter Omar E. Zapata and Online Editor Alejandra Yañez contributed to this report.