Roger Ortiz Has Totally Failed the Voters; What We Need from Our Next Election Administrator

Outgoing Election Administrator Roger Ortiz

Ortiz Yields to Ernie

Cameron County will NEVER have fair, clean elections as long as Roger Ortiz is Election Administrator.  The weak-minded Ortiz has allowed Ernie Hernandez access and control of nearly every aspect of the election process.  


While it was reported that the election judges at Christ the King Church and the Cameron Park polling places actually are employed by Ernie, that the election judge at the Central Library is an Hernandez partisan and that the judge at Benevides school was in the Erin Hernandez campaign,  other judges are simply under his influence.  


The placing of key Hernandez personnel and apologists as election judges is not surprising when you learn that one Adriana Villarreal is in charge of such assignments.  Adriana's close ties to Ernie Hernandez are enhanced by the fact that her boyfriend is Amadeo Rodriguez III, the son of notorious politiquero Amadeo Rodriguez, Jr.  The warehouse housing mail-in ballots is run by more of the Rodriquez clan;  Joanne Rodriguez Gonzalez and her disabled husband Freddie.  


With all of this cronyism in place in the the Ortiz run Election Department, it's not difficult to understand why poll watchers and others who tried to speak up when they saw apparent abuses, were quickly stifled, silenced and thwarted.  


In our personal chat with Ortiz, he claimed his hands were tied because he has no enforcement powers.  But, a cursory reading of the election code reveals that many violations are Class A or B misdemeanors or State felonies.  So, no Roger, we do not expect you to arrest, detain, handcuff or book suspects, but we do expect you to report violations to law enforcement so they can enforce the election code.  Here is my question:  During Roger Ortiz's tenure as Election Administrator has he EVER reported an election code violation to law enforcement?  

Evaluating the Election Department

Web Site Info

The Cameron County web site describes an enormous litany of duties associated with the Election Administrator and his/her underlings.  

Lest we think that the department works merely a few days a year,  sitting on their duffs for the other 50 odd weeks, notice that the site indicates the department plays a key role in voter registration, organizing elections, community outreach, managing a warehouse of election supplies as well as "recruiting, training and paying poll watchers and clerks."  


The Cameron County Election Department does all of the above with a mere 8 full-timers and a slew of temporaries hired for the "election season."  

Evaluating the Department's Performance

• Voter registration:  With a huge push from the Motor Voter Act, the number of registered voters has swelled to over 173,000.  No complaints there.  It is the number of actual voters that is disappointing, this just past runoff totaling around 17,000 or 10% of those registered.
• Responding to information requests:  Here the department, much like the City of Brownsville tends to drag its feet, especially if it the information may reveal fraud or incompetence.  If the department legally has 10 days to respond, it can be expected to use all 10.  . . . . . . . not very forthcoming or cooperative.
• Managing voter supplies:  One polling place was out of ballots for half a day during early voting.  Not acceptable.  These are basic clerk skills.  
• Recruiting, training poll staff:  This a huge departmental weakness.  The department has consistently appointed partisan judges who protect the interests of certain candidates, not the integrity of the vote.  Poll watchers are ostracized if they even attempt to do their jobs.  

A Dynamic, Honest Election Administrator Needed

Since the Cameron County web site mentions "community outreach" as a primary function of the election department, let's consider what that might involve.  Since it's not voter registration but indeed, voter turnout that disappoints, imagine an articulate, outgoing administrator with public speaking skills visiting campuses, recording public service announcements advocating voter participation.


Here is a possible message:  Do you want Interstate 69 built in the valley, a free standing VA hospital, projects and grants for our port?  Other communities have had I-69 for 20 years.  Areas with smaller populations and fewer veterans have hospitals and other ports get such government assistance.  We get overlooked because we don't vote.  State and federal government funding is doled out by politicians who keep their eyes focused on the number of voters in a given area, not the area's population.  Our voter turnout is equal to the population of the City of Donna.  Until more registered voters in Brownsville and Cameron County ACTUALLY vote, we will continue to be overlooked.


Voter turnout trumps voter fraud.  Unless the Ernie Hernandez's of the region start registering those in the cemeteries, they simply won't be able to keep up with a large voter turnout.  


But we have more work for our next election administrator:  Clear communication with the nursing homes, adult high rises and adult day care centers as to what the election code permits and does not permit.  Surely, the training from the state covers this.  That information needs to be communicated to the owners and managers of these facilities and subsequently to their support staff.  This is long overdue.  


Poll watchers serve to protect against election abuses, fraud.  When they are stifled, silenced and squelched, they are ineffective.  Election judges who do not permit poll watchers to do their jobs, need to be terminated.  


Will the election commission have the courage to do something that should have been done long ago;  terminate Roger Ortiz?  Will they replace him with someone with the requisite skills necessary to jumpstart voter participation?  Not likely.  They much prefer the status quo.