Trinity Hewtty
Editor-In-Chief
The deadline to register to vote in the March 3 primary election is Feb. 2, the same day San Antonio’s mayor will visit Texas A&M University-San Antonio to encourage students to exercise their civic duty.
Primary elections happen for every level including local, state and federal. The outcome of the March 3 election will determine what is on the ballot in November.
Voters can cast their ballots in either the Democratic or Republican primary to choose that party’s candidates for November. Races include Texas governor, U.S. senate, attorney general and the Texas Supreme Court.
There are also propositions on the ballot this election that address property taxes, sharia law, immigration and banning gender services in K-12 schools.
“I’m excited to be registered to vote,” said Carla Rios, a freshman at Texas A&M University-San Antonio who has not declared a major.
However, the first-time voter said she has never seen a ballot before and has questions about what one looks like.
“It was hard to find info about the districts,” Rios said.
José Pérez, assistant professor of political science, said voting in the primaries or city elections is just as important as federal or state elections.
“Voting is a habit,” Pérez said. “The more you practice it, the more likely you are to show up. People often think federal and state elections are the most important, but local and primary elections matter just as much as they happen more often, every year.”
The Mays Center for Experiential Learning and Community Engagement will serve as an early voting site Feb. 17‑27 and as a March 3 election day voting site in the community room.
The Mays Center will hold a non-partisan vote event from 12:30-1:45 p.m. Feb. 2 in the Ceremony Room of Patriots’ Casa. Organizers will cover how to vote, how to register to vote and how to check your voter registration status.
The event aims to engage students in the voting process by providing accessible, nonpartisan resources, said Lori Day, assistant director of civic engagement.
“It’s one of the ways that students can make their voices be heard in their communities,” Day said about voting. “A lot of the time, many students, they do wanna participate but they don’t always know where to start. So the point of the event is really to kind of help with making sure that students do know the process.”
Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones will be the featured keynote speaker, followed by a 15-20 minute Q&A session with students. Her portion of the event will run 1-1:45 p.m.
The mayor reached out to the university to speak to college students about the importance of voting, Day said. “She wanted to make sure the younger generation knows the importance of showing up at the polls for the upcoming election.”
Students uncomfortable speaking in public can write questions on notecards for the mayor to answer during the session.
“ It is helpful to have her come and just kind of help make things a little bit more real for students to see their local San Antonio leaders speaking to them,” Day said.
Catering from Panda Express will be available toward the end of the event.
In addition to the mayor, local nonpartisan organizations such as the League of Women Voters and on-campus democracy engagement fellows will provide voter educational resources. Former MOVE Texas president and A&M-San Antonio alumna Selene Torres-Chavez will also attend to give a presentation and lead an activity with students.
Postcards will be available for students to write letters to their local representatives. Attendees can choose to either have their letters mailed to elected officials or be displayed at the Mays Center to promote early voting. QR codes linking to information about local representatives and nonpartisan sample letters will also be provided.
Day said she and other staff will assist students with voter registration at the event.
“Myself, my supervisor and a few of our student workers are registered volunteer deputy registrar so we are able to register people to vote,” she said.
Staff will also help students check their voter registration information, ensuring their names and addresses are correct, particularly for those who live on campus and may still be registered in their hometowns.
Other activities at the event include creating yard signs and civic bingo, where students can win small prizes. The signs are free to keep or can be displayed on campus if they are nonpartisan and examples of nonpartisan slogans will be shared.
There will also be a civic reflection wall, where attendees can answer prompts on whiteboards around the room.
“We really wanna make sure that students think about the things that they are passionate about, their values and how they wanna show up for their local San Antonio community,” Day said.
Day encourages anyone interested in learning more about voting or accessing resources to visit the Mays Center.
“The school did a really good job telling us how voting works,” Draven Sierra, an English junior at A&M San Antonio, said of past voting events the Mays Center has held. “They gave us a voter guide and it told you exactly what everything was.”
More information can be found on JagSync.
For more key information, Texas 2036 has a guide here for all the things primary election related.
