Pete Mendoza
As early voting for the March 5 primaries approaches, some students say they do not understand how the process for that election works.
Art education senior Samantha Ramos says the concept of the primaries was not clear to her.
“I don’t know how the primaries work,” Ramos said. “I’ve never understood how everything kind of works. You vote for one or the other. That’s how I’ve always seen it but I know it’s way more complicated than that”
Education junior Kennia Gonzalez says she does not really know anything about the primary election.
“I was just going to see if they came on campus or google it later,” Gonzalez said. “I think I know the days, but I just knew the last day to register was Feb. 5.”
Cameron County Elections Administrator Remi Garza explains what the primaries are and how they work.
“Each party is responsible for holding an election to find out which individuals they’re going to send to the November ballot so that when people vote in the general election in November, they’re making their choices between the parties’ candidates,” Garza said.
He says Texas has an open primary, meaning if voters chose one party in a previous election, they are allowed to choose a different party in the upcoming election.
Garza adds Cameron County will have 19 different polling locations, including the Interdisciplinary Academic Building on the UTRGV Brownsville campus.
He advises Cameron County voters to look at the Elections Department sample ballots.
“ We want to encourage people to look at those sample ballots,” Garza said. “That way you can review who the candidates are so that when you go into the polling place, if you’ve already made your choices, you can do so quickly.”
Voters must bring an appropriate form of identification, which can be a driver’s license, an election certificate, passport or an alternate form of identification.
Garza encourages student voters to give themselves plenty of time to arrive at a polling location to be able to cast their votes. Students must make sure to vote in the county they are registered in with the possibility of casting their ballot at any of the polling stations in the county.
Early voting will take place from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Feb. 20 to 23, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Feb. 24 to 25, and from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Feb. 26 to March 1.
For more information about voting, visit cameroncountytx.gov.
This is Pete Mendoza for Vaquero Radio.
