Reprint from the Progress Times - February 1, 2008
©Progress Times 2008 - All Rights Reserved

 

La Joya School Board election in limbo

 

La Joya Schools may hold a do-over election February 16. And they may not. No one knows yet.

Last October, District Court Judge Federico Hinojosa ruled the May, 2007 La Joya ISD school board elections void, and ordered a new election be held February 16, under court supervision.

With the election date just around the corner and early voting to begin at least three to four days before the election day, voters still don’t know if the election will be held as ordered. The case has been appealed and the appellate court is expected to issue a ruling soon. As of press time Thursday, word of a ruling had not been received.

The board members placed on the La Joya board in the contested election, Arturo Gonzalez and Esperanza Ochoa, filed the appeal seeking to overturn the district court judge’s decision.

Gonzalez and Ochoa, running under the Team USA ticket, displaced incumbent board member Elma Garza and defeated Domingo "Mingo" Villarreal Jr. in the voided election. However, they have been allowed to retain their seats on the board.

Three judges from the Corpus Christi Court of Appeals are reviewing the case to determine if there are grounds to overturn the lower court’s ruling.

"They’ve been behind closed doors for eight days," said La Joya Mayor Billy Leo. The court brief’s arguing why the ruling should be overturned was submitted two weeks ago. And last week, attorneys for contestants Domingo "Mingo" Villarreal Jr. and Elma Garza filed their counter briefs, Leo added.

Meanwhile, everyone is waiting to see if the appellate court will issue a ruling in time for the election to move forward.

Villarreal said he is ready to hold the election as ordered. "We’re sticking to what the judge said," he stated.

The court was told that a decision must be made by today, February 1, to enable the election to be held as scheduled, Leo said. This is necessary to allow the Hidalgo County Elections Department to make all the necessary preparations to hold an election. While the original elections were conducted by La Joya ISD, after ruling election fraud in those elections, Judge Hinojosa ruled that the do-over elections were to be conducted by the Hidalgo County Elections Department under court supervision.

Hidalgo Elections Administrator Teresa Navarro said time is running out. To hold the election on February 16, she had originally given herself a cutoff date of February 1 to give her office time to prepare for the election. If she does not receive instructions from the courts in time, the election simply cannot be held.

"Whatever they say is what I’ll do," said Navarro. "We have everything prepared and ready to go. If they say proceed with February 16, then that’s what we’ll do."

However, it does take time to roll out an election. Legal election notices have to go out, the machines have to be delivered, election workers must be notified.

If an order were to come down just two days before the election date, Navarro said it couldn’t be done. "I need a good seven days to post notices and deliver the machines," she said. The machines have to be set up and tested for 48 hours before delivery, for example.

Navarro, just like everyone else, is waiting on the court’s decision.

Election Fraud Ruling

The original court ruling said:

"Our system of government depends on free and fair elec-tions.

"I find that the La Joya ISD school board election of May 12, 2007, and specifically the polling places at Bentsen Ele-mentary and E.B. Reyna Ele-mentary was anything but free and fair."

"I find that the contestants have proven by clear and con-vincing evidence that illegal votes were counted, that the officials failed to count some legal votes, and that the election officers engaged in fraud, illegal conduct and made mistakes all of which materially affected the outcome of the election."

"I find that the number of illegal votes is greater than the number of votes necessary to change the outcome of the two places on the ballot."

"However, I cannot ascertain the true outcome of the elec-tion."

"Therefore, I declare the La Joya ISD school board election of May 12, 2007 to be void."

"I order the La Joya Inde-pendent School District to con-duct a new election for school board trustees on February the 16th of 2008."

"And I’m appointing the Hidalgo County elections administrator, Ms. Teresa Navarro, to administer the new election under this court’s supervision," ruled Judge Hinojosa.