Use your voice

With early voting for the primary elections starting Tuesday, an assistant professor of political science encourages students to make their voice heard and cast their vote.

In Texas, the March 5 primary elections determine who will run in the November general elections for each major political party, according to Andrew Smith, an assistant professor of political science.

Remi Garza, Cameron County Elections administrator, said that although various candidates run against each other for each major party during the primaries in March, only one will appear for each office on the November ballot for the general elections.

The Rider asked 10 students whether they planned to vote. Four said no, for reasons ranging from not being registered to knowing little about the elections. Five replied yes, and one said she was not sure.

Criminal justice sophomore Jose Sanchez said he wanted to vote but did not register in time.

“I mean, it’s important to vote, not just in primary or national elections, but also in school,” Sanchez said.

Smith said the primaries are “extremely important” as voters will be selecting nominees for not only president, but also for other offices, including Congress and judgeships.

Garza said the turnout for primary elections always appears to be lower than general elections because the voters are split into two groups: Democrats and Republicans.

“We’re preparing for a significant turnout given some of the local races on the ballot this time around,” Garza said. “Back in 2020, we saw close to 34,000 [Democrats] participate, which is roughly about 16% of the overall registered voters for the county. And then, of course, in the Republican primary, that number is generally a little bit smaller. … There was about … 8,000 people that voted in the Republican primary in 2020, which is another 3.9%.”

He said South Texas historically has a lower turnout rate than the rest of the state on average.

Cameron County has 19 early voting locations starting Tuesday, including the Interdisciplinary Academic Building on the Brownsville campus. As for the March 5 primary election date, the Democrats will have 73 polling locations and the Republicans will have 49. 

Early voting locations will have all the ballots available despite party and precinct. Garza said voters who wait until March 5 will have to check where their precinct and party will be voting to ensure they receive the correct ballot.

Sample ballots and polling location information are available online at cameroncountytx.gov/elections.

The Rider reached out to Hilda Salinas, Hidalgo County Elections administrator, for an interview about the county’s turnout rate and polling sites. As of press time, Salinas had not responded.

In Hidalgo County, there will be 30 early voting sites, including the Student Academic Center lobby on the Edinburg campus, and 67 Election Day voting sites.

Sample ballots and polling location information are available online at hidalgocounty.us/elections.

The Rider asked Smith which race will affect the Rio Grande Valley most, to which he replied the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate races.

“For the U.S. House race, all four counties of the Lower Rio Grande Valley will have primary elections for who each party will be represented by in the November election,” he replied. “For the U.S. Senate race, you have Ted Cruz, the current incumbent, who’s a Republican. 

“If you vote in the Democratic primary, you’re going to be deciding who you think the Democrats should run against him in November.”

*challenger info

When considering the incumbent, or the person already in office, Smith said voters should think about whether they are better off now than they were two or four years ago.

“Are you better off in terms of your wages, in terms of price, in terms of immigration, in terms of abortion rights, just to name a few,” he said. “Now, if you’re not satisfied, if you don’t think you’re better off, then the question becomes who do you think will make you better?”

Smith said people’s ideologies are still split as their “agreement on issues is about as far apart now as they were in 2020.”

However, there are still some differences between the environment surrounding this year’s elections and the 2020 elections.

“Texas has new voting laws,” Smith said. “This will be the first time some of these restrictions on, say, absentee by mail balloting … will be in place in a presidential election year.”

The new voting laws will impose stricter signature verification on mail-in or absentee ballots. Individuals must also include their voter ID, driver’s license or Social Security number on their absentee ballot. There will also be fewer dropoff locations for mail-in ballots and restrictions on who is allowed to drop a ballot off on someone else’s behalf.

Smith said it is hard to say who the top choices for each party will be, but he predicts incumbent President Joe Biden will be selected in the Democratic primaries and former President Donald Trump is likely to be the Republican nominee.

“The other candidates on the ballot … their campaign messages haven’t gone out very far,” he said. “There’s very little media coverage of them, but there’s plenty of Biden and there is the feeling that, as with 2020, if you’re a Democrat, you have to think about who is going to be most capable of beating presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump.”

Key issues that are likely to play big roles in the election include the economy, immigration and abortion rights, according to Smith.

“For a lot of Democrats, on immigration, they want their cake and eat it, too,” he said. “They want that pathway to citizenship. They want [the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals], but they also want a very secure border. … [For Republicans], despite Biden adopting many of the tough tactics that former President Trump did, there is a perception that … there’s an open-border policy. Is there an open border? Obviously not.”

Smith said immigration, health care and the economy will be big factors in the Valley for congressional races.

He said Mayra Flores is the Republican frontrunner for the U.S. House of Representatives District 34 race, adding that she is running on a “Trumplike” border security platform. For Democrats, incumbent Vicente Gonzalez is going to appeal to moderate Democrats and is likely to point to the fact that he has brought in “millions of dollars for border security.”

For the U.S. House of Representatives District 15 race, Republican incumbent Monica De La Cruz is going to run on a “tough on immigration platform,” Smith said.

Democratic frontrunner Michelle Vallejo is facing a more conservative Democratic opponent, John Villarreal Rigney. Smith said Vallejo is likely to run on a left-wing platform when it comes to things such as immigration, universal health care, better wages and protections for farmworkers.