Official speaks on voter registration deadline

CAMERON COUNTY, Texas ( ValleyCentral ) — The last day for voter registration to participate in November’s election was Monday.

“I think I’ve seen at least 25 to 50 people in our lobby, just this morning,” said Remi Garza, Cameron County Elections Administrator. “So we expect that same pattern is going to happen throughout the day. The deadline for voter registration is always an active day in our lobby.”

Garza said his office saw a lot of first-time registrants and people wanting to make sure their registration is still active.

“We are finding that a lot of people are coming in, thinking that they have to re-submit their registration because they haven’t voted in a long time. But in Texas, your registration renews every two years automatically. Unless we have information that indicates you may not still reside in Cameron County.”

Getting a voter certificate returned to the office, or not having correspondence they send out getting forwarded, are examples where the county might have to look into someone’s registration status closely.

Garza said there are more eligible voters in Cameron County, which is why he is seeing more votes. During the last presidential election, there were approximately 219,000 registered voters, whereas today that number is closer to 237,000.

“There’s a lot more people registered today than there were four years ago. So, we’re hoping that if the turnout percentage remains the same, we could see close to 120, 125,000 people actually participate in the election.”

That participation total is just for Cameron County and not the Rio Grande Valley. He said in 2020, 52% of the overall registered voters cast a ballot, and somewhere between 85%-90% of eligible voters are registered.

Voters may also find it easier to cast a ballot in Cameron County during November, as it is rolling out a county-wide polling place program.

On election day, voters will be able to visit any polling location to vote, not just to their assigned precinct. That is the same option voters have during the early voting period.

Voters can check their status on the Cameron Voters website .

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