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According to the Registrar of Voters, a group of county residents challenged the candidacy of former Hollister mayor Ignacio Velazquez who has filed for the District 5 seat on the San Benito County Board of Supervisors. However, the Registrar of Voters Francisco Diaz on a Dec. 14 analysis, “affirms Ignacio Velasquez’s (SIC) immediate eligibility” to run for office.
The quibble was over where Velazquez lives and whether a structure he rented in District 5 would be considered his “domicile.” Diaz defined domicile as a place of physical presence coupled with the intention to make it a permanent home.
According to the San Benito County candidate guide, to be eligible to run for Board of Supervisors, a candidate must be a U.S. citizen, a registered voter within the district they seek to represent for at least 30 days preceding the filing deadline, and must reside in the district during incumbency.
Diaz’s administrative analysis dated Dec. 14 stated that his office received complaints starting Dec. 2 alleging Velazquez does not reside in District 5 and requesting his candidacy be declared invalid following his filing. According to documents, Velazquez filed for his candidacy on Dec. 6. Diaz told BenitoLink there were seven complaints submitted to the office by different county residents. He said two of the complaints were in writing and the rest were received by phone.
Chief Deputy County Clerk-Recorder-Elections Ana De Castro Maquiz said her office cannot release the names of complainants. BenitoLink obtained copies of the complaints through a public records request but the names of the complainants were redacted.
The complaints cite Velazquez living in an address on Parkland Drive but according to Google Maps, there is no such road in Hollister.
According to Diaz’s analysis, the complaints stated that the property Velazquez listed is on 5850 San Felipe Road and does not contain permitted residences, that Velazquez’s spouse and children have a different residence and that the complainants believed he still lived at his previously registered address.
Velazquez, who served as the Hollister mayor between December 2012 and December 2022, said he is moving to the district and followed all the rules and met the requirements in order to run for that district.
“Noe, Everybody does it,” he told BenitoLink.
He went on to say, “I spend my entire day in the district because I work in that district,” and that he “even works into the evenings in the district.”
District 5 includes downtown Hollister, neighborhoods between Rancho San Justo Middle School and Sunnyslope Elementary School, and the north part of the county between Hwy 25 and Hwy 156.
Velazquez owns The Vault building at 452 San Benito Street and American Electrical Services in an office at 501 San Benito Street in Hollister. Both are in District 5.
He added what he did is common practice.
“People around the state do the same thing, all over the place,” Velazquez said. “That’s how people run for office.”
He said what he did was also done by Supervisor Bea Gonzales, who is running for reelection for District 5.
“It’s okay for her but not for me to run for office?” Velazquez asked.
Gonzales told BenitoLink she has lived most of her life in District 5 and returned in 2018.
“I moved back in to take care of my mother,” Gonzales said, adding that she still lives with her mother at that location. She said she previously lived on Powell Street in Hollister.
There is a recent case in which a candidate was disciplined for not satisfying the requirements. Monterey County resident Neil Kitchens pleaded no contest in 2020 to charges of false candidacy declaration relating to his residency. Kitchens ran against Robert Rivas for State Assembly in 2018. When questioned by BenitoLink about his residency at the time, Kitchens denied living outside of the district.
According to investigators and reported by the Salinas Californian, Kitchens used the address of a property he was renting in Salinas while he lived in Prunedale. He was sentenced to 60 days of home confinement and two years of formal probation. Velazquez said Kitchens’ case was nothing like his.
The analysis by Diaz stated that one is eligible to run for a race in a particular district when one lives or intends to make the new place a permanent home and has been registered to vote in that district for at least 30 days prior to the deadline to file nomination documents, which was Dec. 8. Diaz added that Velazquez registered to vote using the San Felipe Road address on Oct. 27.
It also said that a spouse’s domicile cannot be assumed to be the same as the candidate’s.
The analysis concludes that any attempt to “deceive the election process,” remains a subject of investigation and that people may present evidence to substantiate such intent.
Diaz told BenitoLink the public is responsible for submitting evidence that validates any complaint.
Velazquez said, “I’m not afraid of a fight. People are trying to smear my name.”
“I qualified because I followed the rules,” he said. “Why would there be a story on this? If you don’t follow the rules, you can’t run for office.”
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