Election Night Steady, Not A Flurry At County Courthouse

By Victor Arreola / ABC-7

Quiet, slow, a trickle.

Not exactly the kind of words one might use to describe a vibrant election day.

But according to El Paso County Elections officials, that is exactly the kind of day it’s been here in the Borderland.

Even with four El Paso City Council seats, a mayoral recall election in Socorro, and two initiatives that could significantly affect tax rates in Canutillo all in the balance, the atmosphere at the County Courthouse in Downtown El Paso on the evening of election Saturday was so calm, it was possible to clearly hear the echoes of yellow paper envelopes being opened riochetting off the mostly-bare walls.

Election workers could be seen carrying bags full of ballots coming in from up and down the borderland from a collection area elsewhere in the courthouse down to the main counting center in the first floor of the building. But the pace of the whole process was not so much a flurry, but more a steady stream–at best.

But election officials say this is the way things go here in El Paso County.

Javier Chacon, Elections administrator for the county, said that, though he was hoping for a higher turnout based on the number of candidates, the election went smoothly, and mostly according to expectations.

In the entire county of El Paso there are just over 227,000 registered voters, according to the Elections Department’s figures.

Shorty before the final tally, officials had counted about 15,400 votes cast, or just under 7 percent of all eligible voters in the county

Chacon said that on elections like this one, when there no national or state races on the ballot, the typical turnout is anywhere between 7 percent and 10 percent.

That means that the decision makers who’ll make choices that could touch the lives of more than 800,000 residents of El Paso county, will be chosen by less than 3 percent of those residents.

That’s how things go here in El Paso County.