(Seguin) — Election polls are now open for Guadalupe County voters to cast their ballots during this year’s Joint Texas Primary Runoff Election. This election was set for May but Texas Governor Greg Abbott delayed it because of the novel coronavirus pandemic. Early voting began Monday and will run through Friday July 10.
The election, based on the original March 3 Primary results, looks to solidify an official party nomination for individual races headed into the November Presidential and General Election. At the time, the March 3 Primaries were held just weeks if not days before headlines of COVID-19 began to heavily sweep across the state and the country.
Guadalupe County Elections Administrator Lisa Hayes says with Texas still in the midst of the pandemic, bringing attention to the races appearing on both ballots has never been greater for her office.
“We have two races on each ballot. The Democratic Party Primary Runoff Election has United States Senator and Rail Road Commissioner and the Republican Party Primary Runoff Election ballot has United States Representative and Member, State Board of Education (District 5) and there is two different ballots filed for the Republican party because some voters live United States Representative District 15 and some live in 35 but each of those ballots — all the runoff ballots have two races on them for each party. But I think since the governor pushed this election back from May when it normally is happening, I think the voters have had a little time with all the distractions of everything going on in the world to kind of lose touch with what we are voting about,” said Hayes.
Hayes says it’s important that the overall delay for the runoff election doesn’t hinder a person’s opportunity to make it to the polls this summer.
“It is important. This runoff election is as important as any other election because this is the chance for the voters to make their voices heard. A lot of people seem to feel that the Primary and the November Presidential are the important elections and they are very important elections, I won’t say that they are not but the runoff elections are being held for a reason and that’s because candidates are waiting to find out if they will move on to the November election or not. So, they are important. The number of races isn’t the critical issue. It’s the fact that there are races on the ballot that makes this an election that voters should come out and cast their ballot in,” said Hayes.
Hayes says the COVID-19 pandemic has of course impacted some of its early voting locations that many voters might have grown accustomed to. However, she says with a few more days to cast their ballot early, she believes, voters will have no problem making it to a polling location.
“Normally, we have five to six early voting locations and 34 election day locations and due to COVID, there were some locations that were not available because of the current situation so we have four early voting locations — the Seguin Elections Office, the Schertz Elections Office, Grace Church up on FM 725 in New Braunfels and New Berlin City Hall. So, those are the early voting offices and they are open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. today through Thursday. We are closed Friday and Saturday for voting because of the federal holiday for Fourth of July but Sunday, voters can vote from 1 to 6 p.m. and then next week, voting Monday through Friday, voting is from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. So, we have longer for early voting now that the governor extended the days of early voting so I think that is helpful for the voters too and we’ve had some voters call and ask if there was a large crowd before they came in to vote to make sure that there weren’t going to be too many people in a tight space and we are fine with that too. Whatever the voters need to do to feel safe,” said Hayes.
In Guadalupe County, the Democratic ballot features the races for United States Senator and Railroad Commissioner. The candidates for Senator include Mary “MJ” Hegar and Royce West. Seeking the Democratic nomination for Railroad Commissioner are Roberto “Beto” Alonzo and Chrysta Castandeda.
Also depending where you live, the Republican ballot in Guadalupe County also features two separate races for United States Representative.
The Republican ballot for United State Representative District 15 features candidates Ryan Krause and Monica De La Cruz-Hernandez while US Rep. District 35 features Candidates Jenny Garcia Sharon and Guillermo William Hayward.
The Member, State Board of Education District 5 race will also appear on the Republican ballot. Candidates include Lani Popp and Robert Morrow.
Sample ballots for each respective registered voter can be found on the Guadalupe County Elections Office website at co.guadalupe.tx.us./elections.