HARLINGEN — A steady flow of residents came to the polls Monday during the first day of early voting in the May 7 election, what many are calling the city’s biggest contest in more than 20 years.
Across much of Cameron County, the election was drawing higher turnout than most match-ups in other cities, Remi Garza, the county’s elections administrator, said Monday.
“The Harlingen polling sites are definitely seeing the highest activity for this election,” he said. “As a matter of fact, some of them are leading the rest of the county in respect to turnout.”
On top of the ballot, Mayor Chris Boswell, an attorney, is facing attorney Norma Sepulveda while two races could shift the balance of power on the city commission.
Voters speak out
At four voting places here, residents were casting ballots in the hotly contested election that’s tearing rifts across much of the city.
”I think it’s one of the biggest elections in the last 20 years — the most important,” Sylvia Perez, an office accounts manager, said at City Hall.
“There have been too many changes — their behavior’s shocking,” she said of members of the city commission.
Perez, who lives in District 2, said many residents were stripped of their right to vote in the election after the commission redrew the city’s single-member district boundaries, moving them into other voting districts.
“I have friends and family who were disenfranchised,” she said. “I don’t think it was the best option.”
For Dina Casas, the mayoral race drew her to the polls.
“We’re going to decide who’s going to be the leader,” she said. “It’s very important to express our views.”
Meanwhile, Tracy Valverde said she was voting for change.
“I feel there’s this old-boy network going on,” Valverde, a hospital technician, said. “I feel we need change in a positive direction. I don’t feel I’ve seen a lot of change. I see growth. We’re not as stagnant as we were as a community.”
The commission’s spurred changes that are turning the city in the right director, Raymond Reyes, a businessman, said.
“I believe we need change,” he said. “I’ve seen it go in the wrong direction, but things have turned around. I think it’s very important that the citizens are involved in the voting process.”
District 1, 2 races
In crowded races in Districts 1 and 2, the election marks the first match-up since the commission’s majority redrew the city’s single-member district boundaries based on demographics such as income level, changing the districts’ constituency, part of a move that could shift the commission’s balance of power.
In the race for the commission’s District 1 seat, restaurant owner Richard Uribe, the city’s mayor pro tem who first won election in 2016, is running for his third term in the contest pitting him against former Commissioner J.J. Gonzalez, a real estate broker who served on the commission from 2000 to 2006, and Ford Kinsley, a retired Marine Corps sergeant major who serves as the Marine Military Academy’s alumni relations director.
In District 2, Commissioner Frank Puente, a roofing contractor running for his second term, is sparring against a scramble of challengers including Nick Consiglio, a bank marketing director who serves as chairman of the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission; Daniel Lopez, an attorney who serves as the Cameron County Commissioners Court’s litigation counsel; and Ernesto Cisneros, a retired U.S. Border Patrol agent.
Propositions
As part of a special election, the ballot includes three proposed amendments to the City Charter expected to boost voter turnout.
After heated debate, the commission’s new majority called for a proposition asking voters 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.
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 prominent nine-member board.
Now, commissioners are asking voters to consider creating a seven-member airport board, allowing each commissioner to make an appointment to the board while the mayor would appoint two members.
Meanwhile, commissioners called for a third proposition asking voters to decide if they want to push the city’s elections from May to November to help boost turnout, arguing November elections would draw more residents to the polls when local contests run alongside national and state elections.
The charter’s amendment would move May’s elections to the first Tuesday following the first Monday in November beginning in 2024.
Early voting runs through May 3.
