Thursday, November 15, 2012

CAMERON COUNTY ELECTIONS: TRAGEDY BY THE NUMBERS

By Juan Montoya
Now that most elections are over for this year (except for the recounts), it's time to look at some of the interesting numbers that have emerged from the fiasco called elections in Cameron County.
Remember the 608 "provisional votes" that were still left over after the November 6 results?
Well, it appears that aside form those voters who showed up at the wrong precinct or were without identification, etc., there were only about 44 military votes that came in after that Tuesday included in that number. There were some 145 military mail-in votes that came in adn were counted November 6.
Care to guess how many of those 608 provisional votes were accepted by the Cameron County Ballot and Resolution Board?
Would you believe 56?
That's right, 56.
In fact, there were more votes in the "black bag" that were included in the votes after they were somehow overlooked in the regular election-day count. You remember. There were the votes that were left in envelopes, never made it into the ballot boxes, or for some unfathomable reason, were left our of the count on election day. Cameron County Elections Administrator said there was some human error involved, but said they made a negligible difference in the voting.
Yet, he has never told any broadcaster or print media representative that there were 87 such votes that accumulated as a result of "human error," enough to overturn any of the three races in contention across the county, never mind the Brownsville Independent School District. These should have been conted on election day.
And out of those 608 provisional votes, guess how many were cast in the BISD election?
Would you believe 30 in toto?
Now, these may not seem like much, but if you were a candidate whose win or loss was hinging on a handful of votes, the difference would have been immense.
Someone commented that the tragedy of all this was that the 552 voters who showed up at the polls and voted provisionally only to have their votes rejected might well have voted if they had renewed their registration or had bothered to register at all.
As it is, now we know that one vote can make a difference. It's just too bad that those 552 voters who were told to go vote and couldn't might well have made a difference but through apathy or ignorance didn't bother to qualify for their choice to be taken into consideration.
And we're all the poorer for that.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

30 votes total? Isn't that the number thrown around by Ruben Cortez??? He nailed it! Inside information....smells like a "rat".

Mexican Paul Revere said...

Hear ye, hear ye Cameron County! Thank God that we only have to put up with Roger Ortiz for a little while longer! Now, he has plenty of time to practice for "Dancing With The Stars" audition! Good bye Ortiz, you don't deserve any type of farewell, period! Just be glad that you're getting a pension check for service's screwed up while in office!

Anonymous said...

The "downfall of Cameron County", as reported recently on local TV has come about because of rampant corruption in the government and the failure of local citizens to take action to end that corruption. Local citizens insure that those least capable of serving in government, get elected. We talk about "education of the public"....but most don't want to become educated and resent those with an education. The "La Jaiba" analogy says it all, or as Forest Gump said "Stupid is as stupid does"...Gump was much smarter than our electorate. So, those that get elected serve themselves and the Democratic Party promises the poor everything, but there are more poor people not than ever; with decades of empty promises by Democratic leadership.

Anonymous said...

Answer me one thing Juanio! Nowing that the whole Cameron County Election department is so corrupt, why didn't the same BISD administrator asked for a "free" recount when Chirinos was the one behind in the count?

Anonymous said...

juan if you say there were 30 votprovisional voters in th ebiasd race and only 4 were counted what happen to the other 26? de quien chon? something is wrong here, its in balack and white, chrinos stole the election along with help from roger ortiz

Anonymous said...

Juan, Thank you for keeping the readers informed.

Anonymous said...

THE DIRTY THIRTY!!! THROW THEM OUT!!!

Anonymous said...

Our voting procedures are now taking a second seat behind those in Mexico. I remember when we used to make fun of it and that is what we get for doing so. Why vote? It make no le hace!

Anonymous said...

11/16/12 6.03am you are wright juan dont stop informus of everything, and by the way lets follow the case of willy gonzalez a ver si luis saenz va hacer su trabajo o lo va ha dejar ir como pat ahumada.

Former law enforcement officer said...

Pct 2 in Brownsville! Get ready! You have a very suspicious constable taking office in January 2013! Lock your doors and protect your pockets! Only his crooked friends will get the "to protect and serve" while he is in office! FEDS, where are you? We need this elected official out!

Anonymous said...

Nov 18, 11:09

You're right! That guy is the dirtiest cop ever. What's worse than a dirty cop that can set people up and protect doper friends?

rita