The city of Peñitas filed a lawsuit Thursday against Hidalgo County for removing the Peñitas Public Library as a polling location for the upcoming midterm election and the city requested a temporary injunction to keep the county from starting early voting for the school and water district races.
As the county prepares to open for early voting next Monday, the city is trying to stop an election it claims will violate state election code and cause irreparable harm.
Peñitas alleges “many of the eligible voters from the precincts in the City of Peñitas…will [be] disenfranchised,” according to the petition filed with the Hidalgo County District Clerk’s Office.
Hidalgo County, Precinct 3 Commissioner Everardo Villarreal, the Hidalgo County Elections Department and its interim elections administrator Hilda A. Salinas are listed as defendants in the lawsuit.
“The voting residents of the City of Peñitas and Mayor Ramiro Loya, have been adversely affected and harmed by the conduct of the Defendants which will disenfranchise eligible Texas citizens, specifically Peñitas voters” the lawsuit said.
The suit comes nearly two weeks after the city issued a statement urging the county to reinstate the Peñitas Library as a polling location.
“The Peñitas poll location has historically been one of the highest turnout election sites in western Hidalgo County,” the early October statement read.
“For example, in the November 2020 General Election, 3,386 voters cast their ballots at the Peñitas poll location during Early Voting. The neighboring communities of La Joya, Sullivan City, and Granjeno received 1,488, 1,877, and 758 votes, respectively. These smaller turnout poll sites are approved poll locations in the 2022 General Election, while Peñitas remains without a voice.”
The La Joya Independent School District and Agua Special Utility District both have elections for three trustee seats and four directors, respectively, scheduled for Nov. 8.
According to the lawsuit, both entities “ordered that one of the polling places for these elected positions be at the City of Peñitas Public Library.”
“Defendants ignored the election orders” of both entities and blatantly disregarded the wishes of the elected officials, the lawsuit said.
The plaintiffs claim that Villarreal directed Salinas, the interim elections administrator, to remove the Peñitas Library as a polling location and replace it with a polling site at an elementary school within La Joya ISD. But that site was allegedly rejected by the school district.
“The Defendants removing the polling place from the Peñitas Public Library has left multiple precincts located in the City without a polling place in violation of the Texas Election Code which will further disenfranchise the citizens of Peñitas in their fundamental right to vote by closing their polling location,” the lawsuit continued.
The city is requesting a jury trial while it waits on a response for a temporary injunction from a judge.
Early voting is scheduled to run from Oct. 24 through Nov. 4. Election Day is Nov. 8.
