VOTERS IN BROWNSVILLE ARE AN ENDANGERED SPECIES

 

Spot-tailed earless lizard

If you live in Brownsville's Third District and will actually vote in the runoff election, choosing between Roy de los Santos and Jessica Puente-Bradshaw for your City Commissioner for the next four years, you're rarer than a spot-tailed earless lizard, a regular on the Endangered Species List that is occasionally observed in Texas.

You see, only 4.7% of Brownsville's registered voters actually voted in the May 1 municipal election.  Our friend, Laura Miniel, who's already won two national scientific research stipends, has just entered a contest to analyze the reasons for low voter turnout in the Rio Grande Valley, particularly among 18 year olds, a controlled study of the effect and influence of interventions.  

My personal theory, many times repeated, but seldom acknowledged, is that many new drivers licensees do not want to answer "no" to the question:  "Do you also want to register to vote?"  So, they register for the right they never intend to exercise.  

Voter enhancement groups, like UTRGV's Center for Civic Engagement, Vacqueros Vote the RGV's It Takes One have been totally impotent increasing voter turnout among college-age registered voters.  Several years ago, we walked across the UTRGV campus toward the Gran Salon for a UTRGV-sponsored campaign forum.  Along the way, we kept asking students for directions to the candidate forum.  None knew anything about it.  UTGRV had not even used student emails to inform students about the forum.  

It's obvious, from voter turnout, that Brownsville's high schools and colleges do a pitiful job in educating students about their responsibility to vote.

Now, for the tiny minority of Brownsville's Third District, we will now use quotes to compare the views of City Commission candidates Roy de los Santos and Jessica Puente-Bradshaw.