This Monday, early voting kicks off in the Texas Southmost College runoff election for Place 6 held by incumbent Dr. Rey Garcia, a dentist.
He is facing challenger J.J. De Leon, whose credentials include a Masters in education and three decades of working in an administrative capacity in the Brownsville Independent School District.
Unlike most local elected positions, terms on the TSC board are for six years.
And despite denials from many quarters – including Cameron County Elections Administrator Remi Garza – the way the voting places have been set up in both early voting and on election day smacks of voter suppression of the inner city precinct voters.For example, during the early vote, the voting site at the Cameron Park Community Center will not be a polling place. This despite the fact that in the recent county elections it was the second highest in votes cast of the 26 early voting sites all across the county. In fact, a little over 10 percent of the early vote was cast there.
Cameron Park, as we know, is in the heart of the largest colonias in Cameron County which has more inhabitants than Olmito.
Likewise, the traditional early-voting site of Cristo Rey Catholic Church in the heart of Southmost – another enclave of predominantly low-income Hispanic voters – will not be used as a voting place. Instead, the Southmost library, about a mile away, was chosen as an early voting site.
Elections Administrator Garza said there had been "problems" with the Catholic Church and that rather than wrangle with them, "they" had decided to go to the Southmost library site instead.
Garza did not elaborate, but inquiries with the Catholic Diocese office indicated that they did not know of any "problems" having the voting there.
Regardless, this pattern of moving early voting sites away from the heart of the barrio is not a good indicator of the county elections office mission of the department to "fight voter apathy, to provide superior service, to conduct fair and impartial elections, to uphold the highest standards of ethical conduct and integrity, and to preserve the honor and dignity of the voters..."
The election day scheme of clustering voting precincts in the name of frugality and efficiency has also proved suspect. Voters in several inner-city voting precincts have been clustered with others and forced to cast their votes in voting places miles away from their homes instead of allowing them to vote in other voting precincts which will be open only blocks away.
We pointed out, for example, that voters accustomed to cast their ballots in Precinct 60 (Morningside Elementary) will now have to go vote at Rivera High School. Morningside Elementary is less than 10 blocks away from Cromack and in the same barrio, but voters there will have to travel about 3 miles to vote in Rivera H.S. at 6955 FM 802. (See graphic)
Since the polling place at Cromack is going to be open on election day, it's not going to add anything to the cost of running the election, is it? And some of our eternal critics say that the polling places that will be only "slightly inconvenienced" are low-voting precincts anyway. People there don't vote, they say.
That reasoning defies logic. It indicates intent to suppress. So, their thinking goes, since they don't vote very much when the polling place is near, let's make them travel three miles instead of nine blocks. In other words, let's make sure they don't vote.
Let's take another example of how these polling places have been drawn to discourage voting in the barrios.
* Precinct 5 voters, accustomed to vote at Victoria Elementary at 2801 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. (see graphic)
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?
Those are but two examples of their reasoning. But they argue, we have always done things this way and no one has complained before.
TSC board members and administrators have proved sympathetic to protest from voter advocates to open access to all district residents to cast their vote and exercise their right to choose their governmental representatives.
However, when TSC election administrators approached Garza, they were told that if they wanted to change the voting places it would require an approval from the Texas Secretary of State, the TSC board, and other bureaucratic hurdles that would not be able to be overcome before the voting was scheduled to begin.
"We've heard about this before and there is some concern," said TSC trustee Trey Mendez. "We can look at this and make changes to give people better access to the voting process."
Likewise, TSC board chair Adela Garza and trustee Ruben Herrera also expressed a positive attitude toward increasing voter participation to improve access to voter ans remove any impression that the scheme suppressed voting in the Brownsville barrios.
Coincidentally, the same restrictive voting-place scheme were used by the Brownsville Navigation District in their recent election. Should the TSC board move to address these problems, will the port follow suit or get carried away by the inertia of the past?
9 comments:
Why can't these people roll all the elections into one day and avoid continual tramping to the poling place?
One big scam after another.
We don't vote any way so what's the bid deal...
Ese JJ se la come toda
JJ was no administrator for 3 decades. He was a go-for as a simple office clerk who was given too much power by his "hang-on to my skirts" boss - la
Hitler Raquel Ayala. He is at the main office cause he can't pass the teachers test, vato, and now he wants to tell others how to fix the problem at TSC. Well, I guess he can latch on to Adela's pants. (pantalones)
"Vote early and vote often," the Texas way. But where? Could you please list the available early voting sites for the TSC runoff? Is the Library on Central Blvd. open for early voting (it was not during the last TSC runoff, 2 years ago)?
Me and my dead friends always vote at the central library.
Good article in today's paper that will help clear up the mess or make it worse. If the judge did rule the closed unannounced meeting as wrong, why then all that was said and done at the meeting taken as the gospel? Lily
was right and so is Dr. Garcia. What goes on in the board is a carbon copy of what goes on in the BISD board with the two comadres running the show -Sylvia and Adela. You would think Sylvia was the president the way Cesar bows to all her afflictions and tries to contemplate her. Then you've got Trey who echos all Adela says, just like Minerva, and now Cowen are doing for Atkinson. Oh, and what about secret meeting where a quorum meets in hiding to discuss what is to be brought up at the next meeting and who is going to say what and who is going to parrot the same things. Todos son un groupo de ratas.
You read the newspaper but you did not comprehend. Please have somebody read the article in he paper and explain to you, Obviously reading comprehension was not your forte. The judge ruled against Tercero and her claims. Garcia was wrong and is wrong for TSC. He is loyal to Tercero and Tercero only.
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