Cameron County saw an increase of registered voters and ballots cast in the 2020 presidential election compared to 2016.
According to the Cameron County Elections’ website, during the 2016 presidential election there were 197,726 registered voters, of those, 93,716 people voted.
In this year’s election, there were 218,910 registered voters in the county, in which, 115,639 cast a ballot.
Cameron County Elections Administrator Remi Garza said the increase of voters “hopefully” means that people are going to vote in higher numbers than they have in the past.
“Each election cycle for the past four years, we’ve seen a higher level of participation,” Garza said. “And when you compare them to similar elections from different election cycles, for example, in 2016, we had a total balance cast of 93,716, which was our high point up until that time. … So, I’m hopeful that for the 2022 election, we’re going to see a higher number than the 80,000 that participated in 2018.”
According to Garza, Cameron County received 9,940 mail-in ballots, the most the county has ever received.
“I think we’ve seen a lot more activity on the parties and advocacy groups, you know, sort of soliciting this submission of mail-in ballots from the voters who are eligible,” Garza said. “We’ve seen that number slowly increase, as well, nothing dramatic. But I think there were some concerns in the public with respect to [COVID-19] and so people who were eligible decided to take advantage of it. So, you know, it’s almost 6,000 more than we’ve ever had before.”
Vaquero Radio contacted Hidalgo County Elections Administrator Yvonne Ramón for an interview but was unavailable for an interview.
However, according to the Hidalgo County Elections’ website, there was also an increase of registered voters and ballots cast in the 2020 presidential election.
In Hidalgo County, during the 2016 presidential election there were 338,990 registered voters, of those, 176,160 people voted.
In this year’s election, there were 392,604 registered voters in the county, in which, 222,593 cast a ballot.
Garza said the message for voters is that the more people participate, the better the community is reflected in the turnout.
“There’s a lot of races that were on the ballot this year,” he said. “Some were very close, some separated by a single vote and others, you know, were five or six more votes would have made the difference between a runoff and not having to hold one. So, I mean, every vote counts, I think this election proves that more than any other recently.”
For more election coverage, visit utrgvradio.com
For Vaquero News, I’m Victor Ramirez.
