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San Benito County Superior Court Judge Omar Rodriguez on April 10 dismissed Supervisor Ignacio Velazquez’s lawsuit to remove his recall from the June 2 ballot. His fate is now in the hands of voters, who will receive their ballots in the coming weeks.
Rodriguez rejected Velazquez’s argument that signatures collected to initiate the recall were invalid due to incomplete addresses. He ruled that Velazquez had time to challenge those initial signatures, filed last summer, and should not have waited until “the eve of sending ballots to the printer.” Rodriguez added that the supervisor had the opportunity to raise the objection earlier but let it pass.
Nearly 20 people were in the courtroom, including recall proponentss and Velazquez supporters. Also present were County Auditor-Controller Joe Paul Gonzalez and County Clerk and Registrar of Voters Francisco Diaz, who was the defendant in the case.
The ruling comes after fellow Supervisor Kollin Kosmicki raised the same objection with the elections office over a separate recall effort, which was initiated by some of the same people behind Velazquez’s recall. After Kosmicki challenged the validity of signatures submitted with the recall notice of intention within the proscribed 10-day period, the county elections office rejected the notiice after finding that some signatories had listed incomplete addresses, with missing city names, zip codes, or both.
Velazquez did not attend the hearing. His attorney, Nicholas Sanders, argued that the missing address information in the Velazquez recall affected not only the County Registrar of Voters but also Velazquez’s own ability to identify his “accusers” and file a “proper response.” Sanders also noted that Kosmicki’s notice of intention was rejected on the same grounds, and that Velazquez’s recall had even fewer valid signatures: only eight of the 60 required.
Joel Ellinwood, attorney for Diaz, called Velazquez’s argument a “red herring,” saying the supervisor would certainly know the people who signed the petition. “District 5 is a very small district,” Ellinwood said. “These are Mr. Velazquez’s neighbors.”
Ellinwood also said Diaz had recused himself from Kosmicki’s recall, and that he doesn’t agree with the decision of rejecting the signatures in his absence.
Rodriguez sided with Ellinwood, saying that Kosmicki’s recall “highlights” the fact that Velazquez had time to challenge the initial signatures within the 10-day period for doing so, as his fellow supervisor did, and chose not to.
Stacie McGrady, co-chair of the group seeking to oust Velazquez, told BenitoLink they feel “ecstatic” with the decision.
“Judge Rodriguez did an excellent job,” she said. “He considered all of the arguments on either side and he came to the only appropriate conclusion.”
Esther Perez is against the recall and was also in the courthouse. Like Velazquez, she claims the recall is a “scam” driven by Velazquez and Kosmicki’s political opponents, but she thought Judge Rodriguez made the right call.
“The issue with Ignacio is that he didn’t catch it on time,” she said.
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