Registered voters in 11 Texas counties will head to the polls Tuesday to cast ballots in the special election to fill the vacated District 34 congressional seat.
The seat was vacated earlier this year by U.S. Rep. Filemon Vela, D-Brownsville who resigned, and Gov. Greg Abbott on April 4 called for the special election following Vela’s announcement.
Running to fill the unexpired term for Congressional District 34, as they appear on the ballot, are Democrat Rene Coronado, Republican Juana “Janie” Cantu Cabrera, Democrat Dan Sanchez, and Republican Mayra Flores. Vela’s term ends in January.
One of the candidates must receive 50% plus one vote to win in order to avoid a runoff election that would be held in mid-August.
Although much of the District 34 encompasses Cameron County, the district also includes parts of Hidalgo, Willacy, Bee, DeWitt, Goliad, Patricio, Gonzales, Jim Wells, Kenedy and Kleberg counties.
In Cameron County, 10,004 early votes were cast, according to Cameron County’s Department of Elections and Voter Registration.
Elections Administrator Remi Garza expects about 5,000 to 6,000 voters to turn out on election day.
“I am glad that voters are still engaged with respect to elections, there hasn’t been a significant voter fatigue demonstrated in this election,” Garza said. “We are seeing the numbers still well ahead of what our November 2021 constitutional election showed, it is clearly in keeping with what we saw during the primaries, the May 7 elections, and the primary runoffs. There’s still a core group of voters that are participating and engaging.”
Garza wants voters to remember that Tuesday’s special election is different from others where they will be casting only one vote for the candidates in the ballot. There are two Democrats and two Republicans on the ballot.
“It’s not a situation where they are supporting one party or the other, they are actually just casting their ballots for one individual out of those four,” Garza said.
The voting locations in Cameron County will be precinct based, so voters may be voting at different locations then they did in the most recent elections, Garza said.
“They need to make sure they go to the right location when the do go vote,” he said.
The polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday.
