EDINBURG, RGV – Dolly Elizondo will be the first name on the ballot for Congressional District 15 in the Democratic Party primary.
The draw for slots on the ballot was made at Edinburg City Hall on Wednesday evening and the real estate developer and former Hidalgo County Democratic Party chair from Mission, the only woman in the race, came out of the hat first.
The line-up on the CD 15 Democratic Party ballot will be:
1. Dolly Elizondo
2. Johnny ‘JR’ Partain
3. Juan ‘Sonny’ Palacios
4. Vicente Gonzalez
5. Ruben Ramirez Hinojosa
6. Rance G. ‘Randy’ Sweeten
7. Joel Quintanilla
In the race for Texas House District 36, the first name on the ballot will incumbent Rep. Sergio Muñoz and the second will be challenger Abraham Padron.
In the race for Hidalgo County Commissioner, Precinct 1, challenger David Fuentes picked the first position and incumbent A.C. Cuellar’s representative drew second.
In the race for Hidalgo County Commissioner, Precinct 3, incumbent Joe Flores drew first position and challenger Daniel Diaz drew second.
Flores told TV reporter Ron Whitlock: “I’m pleased to draw the first position on the ballot. It’s a good sign. It’s still important today, even though not quite as important as in the days of the paper ballot.”
Hidalgo County election ballots are now electronic.
Reporter Rich Parr wrote a story this week titled ‘Luck Of The Draw: Why Ballot Order Matters’ for WBUR, the NPR station in Boston. He referenced a 10-point summary of the literature on ballot order effects by Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia Center of Politics. “Overall, the research suggests that there is an advantage to being the first name printed on the ballot. There’s also an advantage to being the last name on the ballot in a large field.”
Parr said the size of the effect varies depending on how much information voters have going into the voting booth. “That means the effect is more prominent in down-ballot races for lower-profile offices. It’s also bigger for nonpartisan races than partisan ones; the theory being that in a partisan race, voters use the party affiliation of the candidate as a guide, even if they are not familiar with the names. The opposite is true in primaries. By definition, there is no party distinction between the candidates in a primary. Lacking party cues, ballot order becomes a more important influence, since voters cannot simply zero in on their preferred party as a way of choosing.”
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