Progreso returns to polls with little confidence

PROGRESO — Voters return to the polls today in this city for the first time after a string of questioned elections that have resulted in grand jury investigations and criminal charges for illegally cast ballots.

And while none of the hotly contested school board or city commission seats are up for grabs, some Progreso residents took steps Monday to ensure their trust in future votes.

A group that has long accused Mayor Omar Vela and his politically active family of manipulating poll results filed two petitions requiring the city to turn over elections to outside monitors.

The move — made possible by a state law passed earlier this year — comes too late to have any effect on Tuesday’s polling but should make voting more transparent in future elections, petition organizer Marilu Ybarra said.

“Maybe, maybe we’re going to have some help here next year,” she said. “We’ve got another election coming up in May and we need it.”

On Tuesday’s ballot, Progreso residents will vote on a city proposition and an $8.25 million school board bond issue.

The school district will ask voters to approve a bond that would pay for building, equipping and possibly buying land for a high school science and technology center for training in renewable energy fields.

“The building would serve as a lab and workshop to teach the manufacturing (and) maintenance of solar panels and wind turbines,” Superintendent Fernando Castillo said. “And also serve as a resource to the community (members who) are interested in that technology.”

The city election asks voters to appoint a commission of 15 to 25 people to draft a city charter, a document Progreso has done without since its incorporation in 1991, said Vela, the mayor.

“Having a charter will help us attract more government funding and allow us to annex land to help our city grow,” he said.

But Vela’s critics — who have in the past accused the mayor and his family of paying illegal immigrants to cast ballots, threatening voters’ government jobs and stacking polls with partisan election workers — questioned both ballot issues.

Residents like Ybarra fear a new city charter could open a loophole in which the city might avoid the new state law requiring it to hand over its polling to the county’s elections department if 1 percent of residents petition them to do so.

The measure — signed by the governor earlier this year — was drafted by state Sen. Juan “Chuy” Hinojosa, specifically with Progreso’s election issues in mind.

Allegations of voter fraud have surfaced in each of the past three city and school board elections prompting the Texas Attorney General’s Office to open an investigation which has so far resulted in the indictment of three men for illegally casting ballots. The Hidalgo County District Attorney’s Office has also opened a similar probe.

Vela has continuously denied all the accusations against him and his family members but resisted calls for the Hidalgo County Elections Department to step in. He has blamed his critics for any fraudulent voting.

Vela balked Monday at the suggestion that the charter initiative was somehow tied to Ybarra’s petitions.

Polls open today at 7 a.m. and close at 7 p.m.

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Jeremy Roebuck covers courts and general assignments for The Monitor. You can reach him at (956) 683-4437.

Jennifer Berghom covers education and general assignments for The Monitor. You can reach her at (956) 683-4462.