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A month after a group of San Benito County residents filed the first signatures to begin the process to oust Supervisor Kollin Kosmicki, the effort is in limbo. Though the San Benito County Elections Department ultimately rejected those initial signatures because of missing address information, a county judge’s recent ruling offers hope to the recall group that the process could be revived.
That ruling came in a separate but related case. On April 10, San Benito County Judge Omar Rodríguez found that signatures with missing address information were valid in the attempt to recall Supervisor Ignacio Velazquez—the same issue at the heart of the Kosmicki case.
Chief Deputy Clerk-Recorder-Elections Ana de Castro Maquiz, who initially validated the signatures in the Kosmicki recall effort before reversing course and rejecting them, told BenitoLink that the rejection can now only be overturned by a judge. The pro-recall group has threatened to take the case to court if the elections office does not reverse its decision.
To begin a recall, residents must first file a Notice of Intention, in which supporters detail their arguments for wanting to remove the elected official and provide their name, address and signature. On March 23, the group seeking to remove Kosmicki needed at least 60 signatures to begin the process, and submitted 98 to the elections department.
County Clerk-Recorder and Registrar of Voters Francisco Diaz, who has recused himself from the June 2 primary as he’s running in for reelection, said he was absent from the office at the time, and the review of the Notice of Intention fell to De Castro Maquiz. The day after the signatures were filed, she notified Kosmicki, county administration and county counsel that her department had validated the notice, as it “meets the legal requirements.”
On March 25, Kosmicki challenged the decision, arguing that some signatures were missing address information. A day later, De Castro Maquiz reversed course, finding only 34 were valid. Of the 64 rejected, 40 were deemed invalid for lacking an appropriate address, city or zip code.
Diaz told BenitoLink the elections office rejected the signatures after consulting with County Counsel Gregory Priamos, who was copied in the emails sent by De Castro Maquiz.
Two weeks later, Velazquez filed his lawsuit, claiming the elections department had validated the notice of intention of his recall—which is on the June 2 ballot—with the same missing address information. He argued that only eight of the needed 60 signatures were valid.
In his ruling, Rodriguez disagreed. He found that the notice of intention for Velazquez’s recall was “properly certified” by the election department under the “doctrine of substantial compliance,” a legal principle that allows actions to be recognized as valid even if they don’t follow all the specific rules set out in a law.
Despite the ruling, Kosmicki said he still believes those signatures are invalid. “The law is very clear,” he said. “There’s no room for discretion in the law.”
The California Elections Code says a notice of intention shall contain “the printed name, signature, and residence address, including street and number, city, and ZIP Code, of each of the proponents of the recall.”
The group leading Kosmicki’s recall argues that missing zip codes and cities are not sufficient grounds for rejection, which is supported by the local court ruling. The proponents claim the sole purpose of including the signers’ information is to verify that the signer is a registered voter, and that the county registrar can achieve verification without zip codes.
“The zip codes of Hollister and surrounding communities in San Benito County are well-known and limited in number,” the group wrote in a letter sent to elections.
Kosmicki said that if the group files a lawsuit, he would continue his work as usual, denouncing the recall as a “scam” pushed by his political opponents.
“I’m just going to keep telling the truth,” he said.
BenitoLink reached out to Stacie McGrady, a spokesperson for the group, but she didn’t respond to a request for comment before publication.
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