MANY RACES ALREADY DECIDED, BUT EVERY VOTE COUNTS

By Juan Montoya
Coming as it is just a day after Memorial Day when we honor the men and women who paid the ultimate sacrifice that we may enjoy our freedoms, election day in Cameron County should be one in which we should participate and cherish.
Conventional wisdom tell us that the early vote cast in any one election just about determines the final outcome of a contest. Some estimate that as much as 70 percent of the vote is cast during the early voting period.
Yet, with many races often determined by as few as 100 votes or less, this is not necessarily true.
For example, in this year's primary in March, 18,472 votes were cast in Cameron County elections, 10,546 of which were cast in the early voting period.
If you do the math, this equals to 57.09 percent of the votes cast in the early voting period, much lower than the 70 percent. That means that about 43 percent of the votes (7,812) cast in those contests was on election day.  
That is really a sorry turnout when you consider that the Cameron County Elections Office website indicates that there were 181,534 registered voters here. The voting percentage in the March primary equals to a sorry 10.18 percent.
The runoff voting will, of course, be lower. There are fewer candidates and fewer races still undecided.
Yet, the same website indicates that during the runoff early period (only five days compared to 10 in the primary) 6,780 Democrats cast early votes while 677 Republican voters cast theirs for a combined 7,457 total.
If the trends hold, then we should expect much fewer voters going to the polls today than in the primary in March.
We once likened the voting turnout in this county to 10 people in a lifeboat. If of the 10 people in the boat only one decides how the water, food, and other resources are to be divided, then the other nine will be at the mercy of that person and how he distributes the goods, or even limit them to himself.
Voting is very much like that. Only instead of water or bread, or a life jacket, the resources to be divided are things like paved streets and drainage, community parks, street lighting, service centers and the like.
We would all like our candidates to win, of course. But the wishes of the electorate are sometimes finicky or influenced by slick or misleading advertising. When Brownsville elected our last mayor, he and his supporters painted the town with aqua blue campaign signs. Everywhere one turned, it seemed, there was a Tony Martinez sign pleading with us to "Believe in Brownsville." The people responded and Martinez won. Of course, he turned out to be a disappointment, but even that experience can be of benefit. Perhaps people will look through the propaganda and seek out the truth behind the candidate. We can only hope.
If the numbers above hold to be a true measure of the voter turnout, there is still a little less than half of the votes still to be cast today by county voters. It may sound like a cliche, but your vote can make a difference.
Recently we were at a political function attended by former Cameron County Judge Ray Ramon. Ray is making a comeback from a devastating stroke, but he showed some of the old vigor that allowed him to virtually take over county government in the 1970s. It wasn't until Tony Garza, the current U.S. ambassador to Mexico, came in as a Republican in 1988, toppling a controversial reign by Ramon.
But the reason I mention this story is that before Ramon ran for county judge, he had run for Pct. 1 county commissioner against Lucino Rosenbaum Jr. In a runoff in that election, Ramon wanted a recount and ended up losing to Lucino by a mere six votes.
So think about that if you haven't voted. And convince as many people that you can go go vote today.
The candidates have done their best, spending time and money to reach you with their message and platforms. Some have walked door to door to spread the word personally. We have honored veterans who died in battle for allowing us this right. It's up to us now to do our civic duty.