By Juan Montoya
Remember our former post where we pointed out the election day list of polling places required some voters in low-income and rural areas to vote miles away from their customary polling places and even though there were polling places open just blocks away?
At that time we wondered whether the polling place list was designed to cause confusion and inconvenience to where it could discourage low-income voters from voting and wondered whether the sitting elected officials on the the Brownsville Navigation District and the Texas Southmost College who voted to accept the voting plans were aware of what they were approving.
Those lists, critics said, were a quintessential example of voter suppression.
Cameron County Elections Administrator Remi Garza says he merely lumped the polling precincts the way the board of the two entities had approved them in past elections.
"We looked at past voting patterns and participation and the polling places were approved by the port and the college," he said.
TSC board president Adela Garza said that the board placed their confidence in Remi because "it's his job. We trust he wants people to vote."
Now some observers point out that not only is the election days list of polling places suspect, but that if one looks closely at early voting polling places, the same tendency to suppress votes during that time period (April 23 – May 1).
They point out, for example, that the voting places do not include Christ the King Church, the Cameron Park Community Building, or the Main Office of the Brownsville Independent School District.
But they do include the Port's new administrative building, the Cameron County Courthouse, the two city libraries at Central Blvd. and Southmost, TSC,Port Isabel City Hall, and Los Fresnos Community Center.
The exclusion of these voting places in the heart of Brownsville barrios seems to some to be a decided disadvantage to challenger Cesar Lopez, the president o the BISD board challenging incumbent John Wood. Also, they point out that Javier Vera, a CFO for the Gowen Roser Group, which does extensive business with the port is at an advantage over Esteban Guerra and Patrick Anderson by having a polling place near his offices.
There has been some talk that a petition for an injunction against the county elections administrator was in the works for putting together the election and early voting list of polling places. This led current TSC trustee Ruben Herrera to comment that if that happened, he would make a motion to open all the polling places to include every precinct in the clusters.
"Just open all the polling places," Herrera said. "The more the merrier."
Some of the more obvious closed election day polling places that could cause inconvenience are:
* Precinct 5 voters, accustomed to vote at Victoria Elementary at 280` E. 13th Street, will have to travel across town and cast their ballots at Gonzalez Elementary at 4350 Jaime Zapata Road (Coffeeport Road), three miles away as the urraca flies.
That despite the fact that Canales Elementary (Pct. 37)is also a polling place less than nine blocks away. And Cromack Elementary (Pct. 10), is also closer, less than a mile and one-quarter away. Why Gonzalez 3 miles away?
Gonzalez Elementary: 4350 Jaime Zapata Road (Coffeeport Road)
PRECINCT 5: Victoria Elementary, 2801 E. 13th St., Brownsville
PRECINCT 46: Gonzalez Elementary, 4350 Coffeeport Road, Brownsville
PRECINCT 63: Oliveira Middle School, 444 Land O’ Lakes Dr., Brownsville
PRECINCT 96: Perez Elementary, 2514 Shidler Dr., Brownsville
*The same applies to the voters of Skinner Elementary (Pct. 11) who will have to travel across town from south-central Brownsville barrio to cast their vote at Russel, about a one and a quarter-miles away. Why not Putegnat Elementary downtown, less than half a mile away? The same goes for Pct. 13, the First Presbyterian Church just down the street from Sharp. Instead of going there, they will also have to go more than a quarter mile further to Russel.
Russel Elementary: 800 Lakeside Blvd., Brownsville
PRECINCT 12: Russell Elementary, 800 Lakeside, Brownsville
PRECINCT 13: First Presbyterian Church, 424 Palm Blvd., Brownsville
*Now, take a look at the list below. Notice the Perkins Middle School (Pct. 71) is closer to Gonzalez Elementary (3/4 of a mile) than it is to Rivera High School (Pct. 68 about 2 miles), yet that's where TSC and Port voters will have to go to vote on election Day. Why?
*Morningside Elementary is less than a mile away from Cromack and in the same barrio, but voters there will have to travel about 3 miles to vote in Rivera H.S. Why?
Rivera High School: 6955 FM 802, Brownsville
*Morningside Elementary is less than a mile away from Cromack and in the same barrio, but voters there will have to travel about 3 miles to vote in Rivera H.S. Why?
Rivera High School: 6955 FM 802, Brownsville
PRECINCT 14: Social Service Center, 9901 California Road, Brownsville
PRECINCT 60: Morningside Elementary, 1025 Morningside Road, BrownsvillePRECINCT 68: Rivera High School, 6955 FM 802, Brownsville
PRECINCT 71: Perkins Middle School, 4750 Austin Road, Brownsville
PRECINCT 82: El Jardin Elementary, 6911 Boca Chica Blvd., Brownsville
PRECINCT 86: Juliet Garcia Middle School, 5701 FM 802, Brownsville
PRECINCT 102: Raquel Pena Elementary, 4975 Salida de la Luna, Brownsville
PRECINCT 108: Dora Romero Elementary
*The grouping below is even more egregious. If you vote in Pct. 17 in San Benito, you will have to drive all the way into Brownsville to cast you vote on election day. And if you live in Villa Nueva, you will also have to drive there to vote.
Yturria Elementary: 295 West Tandy Road, Brownsville
Yturria Elementary: 295 West Tandy Road, Brownsville
PRECINCT 17 (part) : La Encantada Elementary, 35001 FM 1577, San Benito
PRECINCT 48: Yturria Elementary, 2955 Tandy Road, Brownsville
PRECINCT 98: Benavidez Elementary, 3101 McAllen Road, Brownsville
PRECINCT 107: (GET LOCATION)
*What about these? Precinct 61 (Hudson) is a lot closer to Gonzalez than it is to Stell, yet that's where they will have to go vote. Hanna (Pct. 76) is on the same side of town as Gonzalez, but they, too will have to go to traverse the expressway to the other side of town to vote at Stell. Confused yet?
Stell Middle School: 1105 Los Ebanos, Brownsville
PRECINCT 49: VICC Rec Center, 300 McFadden Road, Brownsville
PRECINCTS 61: Hudson Elementary, 2980 FM 802, Brownsville
PRECINCT 76: Hanna High School, 2615 Price Blvd., Brownsville
Burns Elementary: 1974 Alton Gloor, Brownsville
PRECINCT 73: Brownsville Country Club Golf Center, 1800 W. San Marcelo Blvd., Brownsville
PRECINCT 74: Cameron Park Community Center, 2100 Gregory Ave., Brownsville
PRECINCT 100: Olmito Elementary, 2500 Arroyo Blvd,. Brownsville
*Perkins Middle School is about 3/4 of a mile from Gonzalez Elementary, but they will have to go to Hudson more than 2 miles away to vote at Hudson. Why?
Hudson Elementary: 2980 FM 802, Brownsville
Hudson Elementary: 2980 FM 802, Brownsville
PRECINCT 100: Olmito Elementary, 2500 Arroyo Blvd,. Brownsville
PRECINCT 106: Hudson Elementary
It is obvious that it will be the rural and inner-city voters who will have to make the longest treks to cast their vote. Is this by design and carried by inertia? These are nonpartisan races, so the blame can't be cast at Republicans or Democrats. Is it a situation created by these entities to maintain the status quo (socio-economic class) instead?
We will leave the groupings here because it might take these voters a few days (or months) to realize that their election days polling places have been placed so distant from their homes. Is this why voter turnout on election day is so low?
And is this a deliberate way to suppress voting in these elections for these entities that are so important for the economic development of our area?
5 comments:
How stupid is Herrera from TSC? Where is his sense of fiduciary responsibility to TSC? Would someone please inform the idiot that if he opens up all the precinct polling places TSC will have to pay for all the extra expense associated with each additional polling place. Before he makes his motion he would have to make a motion to adjust the budget to be able to pay for his bright idea. I bet if you asked him he does not even know how much that would cost. Just another politician talking out of his ass.
Remi is protégé of gilberto hinojosa, need I say more?
Blog is so boring. bureaucratic mumbo-jumbo!
How can you suppress the votes of people who do not vote? When they do vote, it is because somebody payed them to vote.
Texas Ranks 47th In Voter Participation why because of tactics to keep voting low as we are witnessing right now and here. If you do vote we have idiots like blogger at 4:48 that somebody blew smoke up his ass so he can have the courage to post.
Post a Comment