SMITH COUNTY, Texas — The Twelfth Court of Appeals in Smith County has ordered a runoff election for July between Bobby Garmon and Curtis Traylor for Smith County Precinct 1 Constable after declaring Willie Mims' victory invalid.
The decision was made on Thursday and comes after Garmon filed an appeal of Mims' March 3rd primary election victory.
The court declared the following:
"Having sustained [Bobby] Garmon’s two issues, we reverse the judgment dismissing Garmon’s lawsuit and we render judgment granting Garmon’s request for a permanent injunction enjoining [Michael] Tolbert from certifying [Willie] Mims as the Democratic nominee for Smith County Constable Precinct 1 for the November 2020 general election ballot. We further order that a runoff primary election between Garmon and [Curtis] Traylor be included on the Smith County Democratic primary runoff ballot for July 14.
We direct the Clerk of this Court to issue the mandate immediately. See TEX. R. APP. P.
18.1(c). Because of the time constraints on this action, we will entertain no motion for rehearing."
On March 20, Governor Greg Abbott issued a proclamation postponing the primary runoff election from May 26 to July 14. As a result, overseas and military absentee ballots will be mailed on May 30.
HOW WE GOT HERE
This election hasn’t been a quiet one between the three men. On January 15, Garmon filed a lawsuit against Smith County Democratic Chairman Michael Tolbert.
In the lawsuit, Garmon asserted that Mims’ application to be on the ballot for Pct. 1 Constable did not include a petition with at least 200 valid signatures from registered voters in the designated precinct. The lawsuit claimed 85 of the 212 signatures Mims submitted with his candidacy filing were invalid. In the State of Texas, a candidate can appear on a ballot by either filing a required amount determined by the county of petition signatures with registered voters or pay a filing fee. Garmon claimed there are 17 signatures either missing the dates of births or voter registration numbers, and eight signatures do not provide the dates of when the signatures were gathered.
"I didn't file this lawsuit just for myself, but this lawsuit for our citizens of Smith County,” Garmon told CBS19 at the time the lawsuit was filed. “You just don't put something together and just turn it in."
According to documents, the Smith County Elections Office identified 32 people on Mims' petition who were not registered to vote in Smith County and 28 who lived outside of Pct. 1.
Two days after Garmon filed the lawsuit, it was denied by the Texas Supreme Court. The court ruled all three candidates, who made timely filings and whose petitions were accepted, could not be rejected later for minor clerical errors that could have been fixed had the candidate been notified of the defect.
However, on January 21, during a nearly hour-long hearing that was held locally with visiting Judge Jim Parsons presiding, a temporary injunction was ordered that, for a short time, kept Mims on the ballot but invalidated any votes cast for him.
About a week later, Mims field an appeal to overturn the injunction and name him as a valid candidate for the race. The appeal, which was filed in the 241st District Court, included himself as an intervenor, which, according to Mims, allowed him to share his evidence and for his votes to be counted in the race.
According to the petition, the Texas Election Code was broken with the timeliness of Garmon's lawsuit filings and the date of the court hearing.
Mims' petition cited the limitation on challenge of application, which states:
Sec. 141.034. LIMITATION ON CHALLENGE OF APPLICATION (a) “An application for a place on the ballot may not be challenged for compliance with the applicable requirements as to form, content, and procedure after the day before any ballot to be voted early by mail is mailed to an address in the authority’s jurisdiction for the election for which the application is made.”
Early voting ballots for the March 3 election were mailed out the week before the hearing took place.
“My votes will count,” Mims said at the time. “What the judge put in place, it’s not valid.”
Mims said if he did receive the majority of votes to become Pct. 1 Constable, the temporary injunction would be in limbo.
During the March 3rd primary election, Mims secured the necessary 51% of votes to avoid a runoff, while defeating Garmon at 38% and Traylor at 10%.
RELATED: Mims wins Smith County Constable Pct. 1 election, courts to determine whether he will serve
Because Mims won the necessary percentage to avoid a runoff, the election decision would go to the court to determine whether Mims' votes would will be validated.
A week after the primary election, and despite Mims winning the majority of votes, Judge Parsons made an oral decision and ruled a runoff election was necessary between Garmon and Traylor after declaring Mims' was an ineligible candidate.
However, Judge Parsons, six days later, made a final judgement “revoking its oral decision made in Court on March 12, 2020." This then resulted in Mims being the winner of the election.
