A candidate for Mission’s upcoming municipal election who was previously disqualified from running, is back on the ballot after he and the city reached a settlement.
Joe Vargas, who is running for the Place 3 seat on the Mission City Council, will be allowed to run as a write-in candidate for the seat as a result of a settlement reached in a lawsuit he filed against the city.
In his petition which he filed on Feb. 28, Vargas sought a restraining order against the city after they disqualified him to run for the city’s May 7 election because he had not changed his voter registration from McAllen to Mission until just a few days before he applied to be on the ballot on Jan. 27.
The registration change also did not become effective until a few days after the Feb. 18 deadline for candidates to file their application to run.
City Secretary Anna Carrillo stated in an affidavit that she contacted the Texas Secretary of State’s Office on Feb. 22 to further confirm whether he was eligible to run for office.
In response to her inquiry, Chuck Pinney, an attorney for the elections division of secretary of state’s office, wrote that he did not meet the requirements.
“(I)f a candidate is not currently registered within the city and wanted to update their registration to meet the voter registration requirement in time for the February 18, 2022 filing deadline, then they would have needed to submit their voter registration application (or have it postmarked) no later than the 30th day before the filing deadline, which was January 19, 2022,” Pinney wrote. “If the candidate’s registration was not effective until after the February 18, 2022 filing deadline, then they would not meet the voter registration requirement for candidate eligibility outlined in Election Code 141.001 (a)(6).”
Carrillo declared Vargas ineligible on Feb. 24 and in a letter sent that same day, Mission City Attorney Gus Martinez notified Vargas of his ineligibility and that he therefore would be removed from the ballot.
But in his petition seeking an injunction, Vargas argued that the election code allows cities to set their own candidate requirements and noted that the city charter only requires city council candidates to have been a citizen of Mission at least six months before the election. Vargas says he moved to the city about a year ago.
He also said that before he was declared ineligible, he had already taken on campaign expenses such as hiring political consultants, purchasing signs and incurring other election-related costs.
State District Judge Marla Cuellar granted the restraining order against the city on March 2 and ordered the parties to meet with a mediator to try to reach an agreement.
After attorneys for the city and Vargas met with a mediator on Wednesday and, after a few hours of deliberation, agreed to allow Vargas to run as a write-in candidate.
“I think it is the best resolution possible; I believe that it is only fair in accordance with the election code and also following the laws that surround our electoral process,” Vargas said Friday of the agreement. “My position has been that I didn’t want this to drag out into a long legal battle because it would cost the constituents money, it would cost the city money, and that was not what the objective was.”
Vargas said running as a write-in candidate would not change his plans going forward, though he acknowledged it would take more work.
“It takes extra effort and extra work to educate the voters on how to cast their vote if they’re going to vote for me,” Vargas said. “It takes additional steps but my position has always been let the people choose, let the people decide.”
“Ultimately, it is their right to choose who’s going to represent them on the city council,” he said.
