Give Me One Good Reason I Should Vote

Convicted criminals do not vote because they can't in most cases. Non-citizens do not vote because they can't. Adherents of the Jehovah's Witness religion do not vote because it violates church rules. The Amish are discouraged from voting, but not prohibited. All of the above has no bearing on why 87% of those who REGISTER to vote in the Rio Grande Valley do not, in fact, vote. All of the above does not factor into why 96% of the REGISTERED voters in the City of Brownsville chose NOT to vote in the last runoff election.

Among all of the factors contributing to low voter turnout, one solitary reason races to the top of the ledger:

DISILLUSIONMENT.

For Brownsville, Cameron County with perhaps the lowest voter turnout in the nation, disillusionment factors in mightily. Before turning over Cameron County rocks in search of mitigating factors, let's examine the word itself. Definitions of the word "disillusionment" frequently include the word disappointment, or even depression. A very straightforward definition is: a feeling that arises from the discovery that something is not what it was anticipated to be. A more literal definition may be: the act of freeing from an illusion.

Why would Cameron County voters be disillusioned?

Start with 28 years of "representation" by Solomon Ortiz, a politico focused on personal gain who set the bar for junkets to exotic locales, usually the Far East. In his last 4 years of office nearly two years were spent on such play. Add Ernie Hernandez, Jr. with two decades of surveying the city and county for business opportunites while allegedly representing the people. Does the city or county need vending? Ernie provides. Wrecker service or printing? Ernie provides. Now factor in Gilberto Hinojosa, the mustachioed scowler who allegedly fixed elections with a variety of maneuvers over the years. We haven't even mentioned Conrado Cantu or Abel Limas. But, we should mention election administrator Roger Ortiz. If Judge Carlos Cascos and the county commission had any concern about voter apathy, disillusionment or lack of confidence in the election process, the weakminded, inept Ortiz would have been long gone.

Contributing factors we have not mentioned

We're not dealing at length with uncertainty over polling places, lack of transportation or other logistics. Disillusionment trumps them all. A confident, informed, believing electorate would vote at midnight at the Upside Down Bar if that was the program.

Ok. So why should I vote?

The elected men and women who get sent to Austin or Washington share control of a huge amount of federal and state funds and resources. Hospitals, interstate highways, universities do get built or subsidized. Industries, agriculture, job training are included in various ways. The distribution of these resources is not necessarily based on raw population or even need. Elected officials are almost always running for re-election. So, logically, they think in terms of VOTERS while doling out these goodies. Did you know that portions of Intersate 69 have been completed? Did you know that other less populated areas with fewer veterans have access to a VA hospital? Do you realize other less strategic ports have been awarded assistance while the Port of Brownsville gets repeatedly overlooked? At 13% voter turnout, the RGV has little political clout. Yet, we sit on a potentially huge, powerful voting block if energized, reassured and convinced that votes count.