BROWNSVILLE — Today is the day some Cameron County voters will decide the outcome of four Democratic primary runoff elections.
Depending on the result, Lupe Valdez or Andrew White will be the Democratic challenger to incumbent Gov. Greg Abbott in the Nov. 6 gubernatorial election. In the State Representative Dist. 27 race, Alex Dominguez hopes to unseat longtime incumbent Rene O. Oliveira.
Adolfo Cordova and Carlos Masso are vying for the judgeship of the 197th Judicial District, with sitting Judge Migdalia Lopez declining to seek reelection. Javier Reyna is taking on incumbent Jonathan Gracia for Justice of the Peace, Precinct No. 2, Place 2.
The polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Four days of early voting, which wrapped up May 18, yielded 7,889 ballots cast at 26 polling stations around the county. Remi Garza, elections administrator, called it an “average turnout” for the county, which has roughly 198,000 residents eligible to vote in this election. The Republican primary election in March drew about 4,000 people, he said.
Runoff elections typically don’t drive a large turnout, Garza said.
“In 2016, where you had more candidates and you had both parties generating interest, we saw 11,222 (ballots cast), but I think each election is different,” he said.
And while more people are opting for early voting these days, Garza said he expects another 8,000 voters to show up at the polls today.
“The general trend is you see about 45 percent of your overall turnout during early voting,” he said.
Garza cautioned residents who already voted in the Republican primary on March 6 not to try to vote in today’s election, otherwise they could face “severe criminal penalties.” The elections office has received a number of provisional ballots from people attempting to vote in both elections, he said.
“It’s actually a second-degree felony,” Garza said.
But he encouraged eligible voters who haven’t voted to get to the polls today, and said the nation’s form of government only works if citizens take part.
“As a representative democracy, every election that we hold to vote for our representatives is extremely important,” Garza said. “Regardless of the level of government … they actually serve the overall governmental structure. I think that we need to remember that the fewer people who participate, the less our representatives actually represent.”
