By GARY LONG
Staff Writer
Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, Cameron County has a record 221,505 registered voters, surpassing the 2020 goal by 1,505 voters and adding 31,505 new voters in the last two years, Elections Administrator Remi Garza informed county commissioners in an email on Tuesday.
Garza credited the increase to the work of 523 Volunteer Deputy Registrars, the entire voter registration staff and outreach team, as well as all county departments to pull off the 2020 general election under extremely difficult circumstances and ensure record voter turnout.
“All in all everyone did their part to make sure all the voters could vote,” Garza said. “I was quite impressed with the resilience of everyone involved including poll workers and even the candidates. They did what they had to do from a difficult perspective and still have the election feel the same.”
On Nov. 3, 115,639 Cameron County voters voted out of 218,661 registered for a turnout just under 53%.
Garza said his office has worked to increase the voter registration total from 203,616 in 2018. Registrations increased 13,956 in 2019 and 17,547 in 2020 for a total of 31,503 to reach the current total of 221,505. Of those, about 219,000 were eligible to vote on Election Day.
At 523, the number of Volunteer Deputy Registrars represents an aspirational long-term trend, Garza said. In a typical election year there will be between 300 and 400 VDRs, so this year’s number is encouraging. The volunteer registrars typically come from voter advocacy groups like the League of Women Voters, but this year there were new groups, such as Texas Rising. In a typical election cycle the groups will register 25-50 new voters, but this year some of the groups registered in the hundreds of new voters, Garza said.
He added that the election was a team effort in every respect. Because of the pandemic and the requirement for social distancing, the elections office hired many more poll workers and opened more early voting locations than usual to have the election feel as familiar as possible.
“Each volunteer had to be trained by our outreach staff. … They along with our staff coordinated with local school districts and community organizations to hold voter registration drives. We could not have achieved our goal this year without their contributions,” Garza wrote in the email, adding that the VDRs will have to be trained and certified for the upcoming two-year election cycle.
Regarding the entire voter registration staff, Garza wrote, “They have done an extraordinary amount of work during this difficult year and have helped maintain our voter rolls.”
