HARLINGEN — A number of factors might help the city’s hotly contested May 7 election pull the highest voter turnout in years.
For the first time in 10 years, Cameron County is running the election, opening four voting places while expanding poll hours during the eight-day early voting period.
On the ballot, two state propositions putting tax issues to a vote along with three proposed changes to Harlingen’s City Charter are likely to draw voters to the polls, Remi Garza, Cameron County’s elections administrator, said Wednesday.
Meanwhile, one of the hottest mayoral elections in years along with two key races that could shift the city commission’s balance of power are expected to pull voters to the polls.
“I would think there probably will be a high voter turnout,” City Secretary Amanda Elizondo said.
‘Major change’
Last week, city commissioners contracted with Cameron County to run the election — for the first time since 2012.
“It’s a major change,” Commissioner Rene Perez, who helped push for the county-run election, said Wednesday.
The city is paying the county $47,630 to run the election while the last city-run election cost less than $25,000.
“Going through this process is going to be more expensive but it’s absolutely worth it to give the opportunity to all of our citizens to come and vote,” Mayor Pro Tem Richard Uribe said before commissioners unanimously voted to contract with the county during a Feb. 2 meeting. “It’s all part of change and growth. We’re growing. Things are changing.”
Expanded voting
During the early voting period, officials are opening polling places at City Hall, the Harlingen Convention Center, the Cultural Arts Center and the Cameron County annex building on Wilson Road.
During most city-run elections, officials limit early voting to City Hall.
“I want to make sure we have as many polling locations as possible,” Perez said.
Meanwhile, county officials are planning to expand weekday early voting hours, keeping the polls open from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. while opening the polls from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sat. April 30.
“These seem to be the hours that work best for voters,” Garza said. “We can see patterns. We certainly feel we provide opportunity for people to vote by adding hours at the end of the day.”
During most city-run elections, officials open weekday early voting polls from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. while closing voting during weekends.
Boosting voter turnout
The expanded early voting hours give working residents a better chance to cast their ballots, Perez said.
“Now they have the time to vote after work,” he said. “We’re expecting a lot bigger turnout.”
Perez is counting on more voting places and expanded poll hours to help more of the city’s 37,142 registered voters cast their ballots this year.
“We don’t want the election to be decided by 1 or 2 percent of the population,” he said. “I think it’s going to lead to a more true representation of what the city of Harlingen wants.”
Hot election
Across town, politicos are billing the election as the hottest since the city’s 1998 match, when former Commissioner Connie de la Garza defeated businessman Humberto Zamora in a bitter mayoral race that sharply divided many voters.
In May’s mayoral race, Mayor Chris Boswell, running for his sixth term, faces attorney Norma Sepulveda, vying to become the first woman to serve as the city’s mayor.
The election marks the city’s first under new single-member district boundary lines which the commission’s new majority redrew based on districts’ demographics such as income level.
As a result of changes in districts’ constituency, the new voting map could play a factor in shifting the commission’s balance of power.
In the race for the commission’s District 1 seat, Uribe, a restaurant owner, is expected to file for a third term in office.
So far, Ford Kinsley, a retired Marine Corps sergeant major who serves as the Marine Military Academy’s alumni relations director, is the sole candidate to file to run for the District 1 seat.
Meanwhile, there’s a scramble for the District 2 seat being vacated by Commissioner Frank Puente, who dropped out of the race to run for the state House of Representatives’ District 37 seat being vacated by Eddie Lucio III, D-Brownsville, who decided against running for re-election.
So far, Nick Consiglio, Texas Regional Bank’s marketing director who serves as the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission’s chairman, has filed to run for the District 2 seat, along with attorney Daniel Lopez and Ernesto Cisneros, a retired U.S. Border Patrol agent.
City propositions
As part of a special election, the ballot includes three propositions expected to help boost voter turnout.
“Changes in city charters do engage the community,” Garza said.
After weeks of debate, the commission’s new majority called for a proposition asking voters to decide whether they want to revise the City Charter to limit the mayor’s and commissioners’ tenures to four, three-year terms.
The proposal, whose term limits would become effective in 2024, would not count incumbents’ current terms against them if they chose to run for re-election.
Members of the new commission also called for a proposition asking voters if they want to change the way the charter appoints members to the board overseeing Valley International Airport.
In 2006, the charter gave the mayor sole power to appoint members to the nine-member board.
Now, commissioners are calling on voters to consider amending the charter to create a seven-member airport board, allowing each commissioner to make an appointment to the board while the mayor would appoint two members.
Meanwhile, a third proposition’s calling on voters to decide if they want to push the city’s elections from May to November as part a plan to draw more residents to the polls.
The charter amendment would move May’s elections to the first Tuesday following the first Monday in November beginning in 2024.
Like Perez, most commissioners argued November elections would draw more voters to the polls when they would run alongside national and state elections.
State propositions
The ballot’s two statewide propositions putting tax issues to a vote are also expected to help boost turnout.
“Anytime there is language on constitutional amendments that can impact taxes and possible tax savings people are more engaged,” Garza said.
>> Proposition 1
“The constitutional amendment authorizing the legislature to provide for the reduction of the amount of a limitation on the total amount of ad valorem taxes that may be imposed for general elementary and secondary public school purposes on the residence homestead of a person who is elderly or disabled to reflect any statutory reduction from the preceding tax year in the maximum compressed rate of the maintenance and operations taxes imposed for those purposes on the homestead.”
>> Proposition 2
“The constitutional amendment increasing the amount of the residence homestead exemption from ad valorem taxation for public school purposes from $25,000 to $40,000.”
Filing deadline, early voting period
The candidate filing period, which opened Jan. 19, will run through Feb. 18, Elizondo said.
Meanwhile, early voting is set to run from April 25 to May 3.
