Hidalgo County's mobile voting unit could lessen politiqueras' influence

The election workers unloaded the voting machines from the van in the parking lot as another placed signs along Pecan Boulevard in the early morning.

Elections judge Carlos Villarreal and his clerks rolled the machines through the open doors of the South Texas College building. By the time they had powered up the voting machines just before 7 a.m., the day’s first voter — a mathematics instructor — was already waiting to vote.

A similar process was repeated at different locations every morning last week by the elections department’s mobile voting unit, a group of poll workers who take voting machines to the voters.

The county’s mobile voting was started in 2008 at adult daycare centers to give elderly voters a convenient way to cast a ballot. Due to poor turnout at adult daycares, the county shifted mobile voting to South Texas College campuses this year to attract the youth vote that turned out in record numbers two years ago.

On the surface, mobile voting seems to be an anti-politiquera: a way to lessen the influence of the entrenched political system that has long been a campaign strategy in the Rio Grande Valley.

Politiqueras are paid by candidates to deliver votes by rounding up voters and taking them carload by carload to early voting locations.

Recruiting voters among the elderly and others who normally don’t cast ballots, politiqueras generally say they are only helping people get to the polls but are criticized for using questionable techniques to influence votes in favor of the paying candidate.

By taking voting machines to locations that politiqueras target, the county could limit their influence on the groups of voters they round up en masse.

But county elections administrator Yvonne Ramon said that mobile voting was mainly started to provide another level of convenience for early voters.

“We’re trying to reach our voters but not in lieu of the politiqueras,” Ramon said. “The mobile voting is a great way for us to take the voting to our voters for convenience and accessibility.”

REACHING VOTERS

Through Friday, 304 voters had used the mobile voting, the 10th-lowest turnout among the county’s 26 early voting substations.

The county wants to eventually extend mobile voting to high traffic areas like malls, shopping centers or other areas with a large community presence, Ramon said. National retailers like Wal-Mart and Target turned down the county’s request this year to host mobile voting at their locations.

But by taking the voting machines to different locations in the community, she said, the elections department increases accessibility and reaches more voters.

Mobile voting could reduce the influence of politiqueras if it manages to bring up voter turnout, said state Rep. Aaron Peña. Because politiqueras are limited by the number of voters they can carry to and from the polls, they become less effective when voter participation increases.

Using politiqueras as a sole campaign strategy is no longer as effective as it was two decades ago with countywide growth, Peña said. But candidates still use them in the hopes that the few hundred votes they do take to the polls eventually put them over the top in a close election.

Knowing the candidates’ desire to win, politiqueras negotiate with opposing candidates to get the best price and may try to work for both sides, he said. But voters ultimately have the final say on politiqueras’ effectiveness.

“The way we fight against that is to educate ourselves on issues,” he said. “It’s every American’s duty to educate themselves and not vote for a candidate just because somebody paid for a taco or gave them a ride.”

LESS INFLUENCE

In his recent campaigns, Peña has followed a scientific method to get out the vote — block walking, canvassing and reaching voters through a computer database.

He prefers to pay college students who believe in his campaign a reasonable wage to advocate for him by knocking on doors, not carrying votes. Peña said that process persuades more voters than hiring politiqueras, who take voters to the polls but can’t control what happens in the voting booth.

Although politiqueras’ role in taking the elderly and others to vote can be viewed as a good cause, they gained a negative connotation when they engaged in dubious tactics like bribing voters or actually casting ballots for them, said Norman Binder, a retired University of Texas-Brownsville professor who has studied their work. Still, the old-school method of politicking using money in the streets goes on in rural and urban communities across the nation.

But politiqueras’ influence in the political process has dramatically decreased as voters have become more educated and make up their own minds about the candidates, Binder said. Candidates acknowledge that influence of politiqueras — who used to win or lose elections for candidates — has shifted mainly to lower-profile races.

“Using media as a mechanism for campaigning has really reduced the influence of politiqueras,” he said. “Not that (candidates) still don’t use them in terms of getting out the vote in certain areas of the campaign, but they don’t have the influence at all that they used to.”

EARLY MORNINGS

The crew that handles mobile voting meets by 6 a.m. every morning at the elections department.

They load up the rented van and travel to the location of the day. After manning early voting from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., they pack up the voting machines and get ready to do it again the next day.

The idea of going to voters makes voting a breeze for busy people, said McAllen resident Kelli Davis.

Davis, a South Texas College mathematics instructor, was waiting Wednesday morning as the mobile voting location was set up. With eight classes to teach this semester, she knew she wanted to get voting out of the way when they were on her campus.

“It’s a lot less stressful for students to have it here,” Davis said. “This is really convenient.”

Jared Janes covers Hidalgo County government, Edinburg and general assignments for The Monitor. He can be reached at (956) 683-4424.