The UTRGV community is encouraged to take advantage of the early voting sites available on both the Edinburg and Brownsville campuses from Oct. 22 through Nov. 2.
Susannah Holliday, a history freshman, said she is registered to vote, and for her, being able to cast a ballot on campus is more convenient.
“It’s a long distance to drive back to my district to vote, so it’s easier for me to vote here,” Holliday said.
On the Brownsville campus, the first week of early voting runs from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Oct. 22-26 in La Sala at the Student Union.
From Oct. 26-Nov. 2, early voting will take place at the same time in the Mary Rose Cardenas Hall on the Texas Southmost College campus.
On the Edinburg campus, the two weeks of early voting will take place from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. in the Student Union Commons.
Remi Garza, Cameron County elections administrator, said that as of Oct. 8, 206,071 individuals were registered to vote, but the applications were still coming in.
“We’ve seen a marked increase in our registration,” Garza said. “Our last election in 2016, we had state, federal and local officers on the ballot. We had 109,000 individuals who were registered, so we’ve seen a good increase.”
Cameron County will have 29 polling locations, which include the UTRGV and TSC campuses, the Main and Southmost branches of the Brownsville Public Library, the Brownsville Independent School District building, New Horizons Medical Clinic and the Cameron County Courthouse, he said.
Yvonne Ramon, Hidalgo County elections administrator, said she’s impressed that as of last Thursday, Hidalgo County has 360,191 registered voters, with about 3,500 applications pending review.
“Oh, we have never, never in my 10 years here ever reached 360,000,” she said.
Ramon said that during the primary elections in March of this year, the number of registered voters was about 349,000.
“We hope that aside from high numbers of registration, what we ask for are high numbers of voter participation,” she said. “That’s what really counts.”
Hidalgo County will have 31 locations for early voting and 74 sites during Election Day, Ramon said.
Cindy Mata-Vasquez, UTRGV director of Student Activities, said that during National Voter Registration Day on both campuses, about 150 students, faculty and staff registered to vote.
“It takes one vote to make a difference,” Mata-Vasquez said. “This is your opportunity to make your voice be heard by voting.”
Veronica De La Garza, director of Governmental Relations, said that in 2017, UTRGV had almost 19,000 registered voters and the goal for this year is to exceed 20,000.
“It’s important for people to get involved, watch the news and kind of get a sense of who they want to vote for,” she said. “The vote number is not something that is just important for the university but it’s really important for the community as a whole.”
In an email sent to The Rider, De La Garza said that curbside voting and reserved parking will be available at the Edinburg and Brownsville campuses.
For this year’s midterm elections, Democratic hopeful Beto O’Rourke and Libertarian Neal M. Dikeman will challenge Republican incumbent Ted Cruz for the U.S. senator position.
Democratic incumbent Filemon M. Vela and Republican Rey Gonzalez are vying for the District 34 U.S. representative spot.
Republican Tim Westley and Libertarian Anthony Cristo are challenging Democratic incumbent Vicente Gonzalez for U.S. representative for District 15.
Running for U.S. Representative for District 28 are Democratic incumbent Henry Cuellar and Libertarian Arthur Thomas IV.
Election Day is Nov. 6 and both UTRGV campuses will serve as polling sites.
For more information regarding voting sites, visit votetexas.gov.
