A San Patricio County district court judge has ruled that 24 votes were illegally cast in last November’s Brownsville Independent School District Board of Trustees race between Minerva M. Pena and Marisa Leal and is expected to order a new election, attorneys on both sides of the disputed election said Tuesday.
State District Judge Joel Johnson informed Leal’s attorney Gilberto Hinojosa and Pena’s counsel Rick Zayas of his finding via email on Monday after Zayas and Hinojosa filed briefs in the case on Friday. The matter was argued at trial Jan. 6-7 before Johnson. Under state law a judge outside the county where an election is being challenged must hear the election challenge.
Leal initially won the seat in the Nov. 2 general election but Pena asked for a recount, prevailed by an eight-vote margin and was declared the winner. Leal contested the election and her challenge was heard at trial Jan. 6-7.
Johnson has yet to file a written order in the case but informed the parties of his intention to do so by email on Monday, saying that because the 24 votes illegally cast exceeds the margin of victory in the election, a new election must be held.
Hinojosa said the new election would likely be held as part of the May 7 general election in which members of the Port of Brownsville Navigation District Board of Trustees and the board for Texas Southmost College are up for election.
Zayas said he would appeal Johnson’s order once it is filed. He said he will argue that it is impossible to determine whether the 24 illegal votes even voted in the BISD election since there were 6,181 under votes in the election, meaning that number of voters did not cast a ballot in the BISD election even though they did vote in other races on the ballot.
Zayas said he made the same argument at trial.
