Early voting begins in the RGV

BROWNSVILLE – Early voting runs from Oct. 20 to Oct. 30 and voters in both Hidalgo and Cameron counties will have seventeen statewide propositions on the ballot.

A few out of the seventeen State of Texas Propositions for Cameron County and Hidalgo county include proposition 1, which provides for the creation of a permanent fund for the capital needs of education programs offered by the Texas State Technical College System, and proposition 16, the constitutional amendment clarifying that a voter must be a United States citizen.

Cameron County Elections Administrator Remi Garza said the elections department will have 22 polling locations throughout Cameron County.

“We’ll, during early voting, we have 22 early voting locations spread throughout Cameron County, ranging from South Padre Island over to La Féria, Brownsville and all the cities in between,” Garza said. “Generally, they’re going to be open from 9 [a.m.] to 6 [p.m.] on the weekdays, 10 [a.m.] to 5 [p.m.] on the Saturday and Sunday. and then the last two days, we’ll actually have 12 hours of voting, and they’ll be open from 8 [a.m.] to 8 [p.m.].”

Multiple government positions are also up for election in accordance to each city.

In Hidalgo County, Edinburg residents will have the opportunity to vote for their next mayor, featuring candidates Johnny Garcia, Richard Molina, Johnathan Salina and Omar Ochoa.

Hidalgo County elections administrator Hilda Salina said the county will have twenty-nine polling locations.

There are seven approved forms of identification voters can take when they go to the voting polls such as United States military ID card, United States passport, Texas driver’s license, Texas identification, election identification certificate, Texas handgun license and United States citizenship certificate with photo.

Garza said he has seen a slight increase in voter registration for this upcoming election in Cameron County.

“We’ve been slowly increasing our voter registration throughout Cameron County,” Garza said. “We currently sit about 236,000 but we’re still processing applications that came in between July and October so hopefully by the end of this election, we’re very close to 237,000 registered voters.”

The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley will host multiple on-campus polling locations for UTRGV students, faculty and staff on its various campuses.

Early voting and election day for Hidalgo County voters will be on the Edinburg Student Academic Center lobby.

Election day voting for Cameron County will be held on the Harlingen Cinical Education building auditorium room 1.100.

If residents are over sixty-five, have a disability, or any circumstances that make them ineligible to vote in person, voters can request to vote by mail or by voter curbside.

For more information on where you can vote, visit your county elections office website or go to Vaquero Vote for UTRGV-voting information.

Election day is Nov. 4.