Penitas mayor pushing to bring polling location back to the city
Related Story
Thousands of people in western Hidalgo County will need to go somewhere else to vote during the November election.
Voters in Peñitas will need to find a new poling location, as the city library was not on the list of approved polling locations in the county.
“If they don't bring the voting place back to Peñitas, then we may go to court,” Peñitas Mayor Ramiro Loya said. “Here in Peñitas, we've had 12 elections already, we've passed all the inspections, so why now?"
Records show nearly 3,400 people voted early in Peñitas during the 2020 election — more than the combined early votes collected in the nearby cities of La Joya and Sullivan City.
“We did receive a request to use the Peñitas voting center – the Peñitas Public Library as a polling location,” Hidalgo County interim elections Administrator Hilda Salinas said. “However, it did come in after the deadline, so we cannot go back and change that.”
Salinas said the La Joya Independent School District should have filed the request for the Peñitas polling location.
La Joya ISD Trustee Roberto Zamora said the request was submitted on Aug. 22 as the district was never told the deadline was on Aug. 18. Zamora added it should not be the school district's responsibility to request a polling site for an election that involves local, state and federal elections.
Without the Peñitas Public Library polling location, western Hidalgo County residents will have to travel to the La Joya Youth Center or the Palmview Recreation Center.
Channel 5 News reached out to the county commissioner's court about the Peñitas' polling site. Hidalgo County Precinct 3 Commissioner Everardo “Ever” Villarreal said he hopes the issue can be resolved.
Read the full statement below:
"My office, the rest of my fellow County Commissioners, and the Hidalgo County Elections Department are focused on conducting fair and honest elections throughout our County. Part of that effort is to ensure that the voters have easy access to legal polling sites. The Hidalgo County Elections office communicated with each entity that is holding an election this November to coordinate the selection of polling sites. Each entity was offered polling locations that met the minimum legal standards under the Texas Election Code. La Joya ISD rejected the use of a school campus as a polling site in the City of Peñitas, leaving the City without a legally sufficient site. The County made multiple attempts to work with the School District to select a polling site, but the District continued to refuse to allow a polling site to serve the voters within the City of Peñitas.
I think the voters have a right to complain and demand answers as to why the School District and the incumbent candidates voted to reject the legal polling sites. The right to vote is an important right that should not be treated lightly or used to play political games. It is important to get answers as to why this polling site was not allowed to be utilized by the County. It is my hope that these issues can be resolved before the next election because the right to vote is one of our most fundamental rights."
News
