As early voting polling locations across the Rio Grande Valley closed last Friday, the turnout had already surpassed the 2016 General Election.
An unofficial 86,901 eligible voters in Cameron County cast their ballots at the close of early voting, a 41.35% increase from 2016’s General Election cycle.
Hidalgo County had an unofficial 171,369 early votes cast by Friday, a 29.43% increase.
Hidalgo County Election Administrator Yvonne Ramón said she believes the reason for the increase is voters are more informed.
“I do believe the voters are more aware of how important a vote is… your vote does count because one becomes two, two becomes three, and three becomes three million,” Ramón said.
Ramón also stated Gov. Greg Abbot’s proclamation on July 27, allowing for six additional days in the early voting period to accommodate for COVID-19 restrictions allowed for more people to cast their ballots.
“We only had 12 days in 2016 and now with the governor’s proclamation where he added six more days, it actually included this past weekend,” she said. “We always only have one Saturday and Sunday and now our voters were able to have two Saturdays and two Sundays.”
Mail-in balloting also increased as the coronavirus pandemic continues to affect Rio Grande Valley residents. Cameron County Elections Administrator Remi Garza believes that there will be a larger surge from mail-in ballots this election stating over 8,000 ballots have been mailed back in the county.
Mail-in ballots do not become official until they are verified by an Early Voting Ballot Board, made up of members of both major political parties. Garza explains how the board makes the vote official.
“It’s their responsibility to review the applications and the returned ballots in order to determine whether they’re going to be accepted and that signature that they’re looking at, people have the misunderstanding they think it has to be an exact match. But that’s not the standard used in Texas,” Garza said.
According to Garza, the Board determines if the signature was signed by someone else, rather than the applicant who requested the mail-in ballot. He adds that even when they determine it may not be a match, they have the ability to research if the person has previously submitted a mail-in ballot and can match handwriting to those submissions.
Election day will be tomorrow, Nov. 3. To find your polling location, visit votetexas.org
For Vaquero News, I’m Justin Elizalde
