PRESIDIO COUNTY — Early voting kicked off last week, marking the start of the busiest part of primary season for the folks who oversee Presidio County’s elections. So far, this year’s election has been running relatively smoothly — but Election Administrator Florcita Zubia spoke out at a Commissioners Court meeting held on February 14 to voice her concerns about holding successful elections in the future.
Zubia’s primary concern is space. This year’s early voting location in Marfa is the USO Building, and Presidians are assigned to the Pabellon building, located next to the Valero gas station on U.S.-67. Not everyone was happy about the latter. Zubia reported getting some “backlash” from local voters who had never used the space before. “The public doesn’t like for the [polling place] to be moved very often because they get used to one location,” she explained.
The process of scouting out and securing these locations for the two-week stretch of early voting isn’t as easy as the average voter might expect. At February’s meeting, Zubia explained that she felt like she had to scramble each election cycle to make sure that county residents could hit the polls.
While the USO has historically been a reliable location for Marfans, Presidio has been a challenge for her office in recent years. Early voting spans 11 consecutive days, with polls open six to twelve hours a day; state law recently changed to extend hours.
While the Presidio Activities Center is a relatively reliable spot for Election Day, the communal nature of the space makes it difficult to disrupt ongoing events. Every day of the week the building hosts meals for local seniors in the morning and youth sports and city meetings in the evening. All of those activities would have to be put on hold for a week and a half to house early voting.
Over the past few cycles, Presidians turned out to Building C of their local County Annex, but ongoing issues with mold in the former office of the justice of the peace pushed Judge Juanita Bishop and her staff into the building. In response, Zubia had to get creative, working with Ismael Lara, who offered his building for free if the county could take care of the utilities.
The catch: Lara’s building is only available if no paying tenant wants it for the month. In the event of a runoff election, the county could very well be out of luck.
Still, she was grateful for Lara’s generosity. “I think it’s big enough and gives voters enough privacy,” she said. “That’s super important to me — that when people come in, they feel like they have the privacy to be able to vote who they want to vote for.”
Apart from a reliable space, Zubia’s other concern is more chronic. Like many other voting entities around the country, it’s difficult for her to find and retain poll staffers.
Working the polls — even through a local election — can be a tough job, requiring staff to keep abreast of election law and new voting technology. Election staff also have to have a good “customer service” attitude, be willing to help folks figure out the process and be ready to potentially diffuse tense situations.
A study conducted by the Brookings Institution found that around half of all election officials nationwide find it difficult to find adequate staffing, and that the problem was much more pronounced in rural counties.
Part of the issue is the long hours — having polls open on weekdays from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. disqualifies many working people and students. The study found that the majority of poll workers are female and of retirement age. “I think the hardest thing is that it’s not an actual, everyday job,” Zubia said. “People can’t just take off work for two weeks to work the election.”
Zubia was thankful for assistance from Presidio County Democratic Chair Ramon Rodriguez for helping recruit a new crop of younger poll workers to work this year’s early voting. “They are go-getters,” she said. “They’ve worked out great.”