TYLER, Texas — The race for Smith County Constable Precinct 1 is set to go to the courts.
Willie Mims secured the necessary 51% of votes to avoid the runoff, beating Bobby Garmon at 38% and Curtis Traylor at 10%.
Current Constable Bobby Garmon was appointed the position back in 2017 after his predecessor was suspended.
At the beginning of January, Garmon filed a lawsuit against the Smith County Democratic Chair Michael Tolbert.
Inside the lawsuit, Garmon asserted that Mims’ application to be on the ballot for Precinct 1 constable did not include a petition with at least 200 valid signatures from registered voters in Smith County Precinct 1.
There was a hearing Jan. 21, which allegedly resulted in a temporary injunction that keeps Mims on the ballot but invalidates any votes cast for him.
However, Mims’ says the hearing did not follow Texas Election Code and he has since filed an appeal. According to the documents, the Texas Election Code was broken with the timeliness of the lawsuit filings and the date of the court hearing.
“My votes do count,” Mims explained at the time. “If I win the election, it will go back to the democratic party and the democratic party will make that decision.”
Because Mims won the necessary 51% to avoid the runoff, the election will now wait on a court decision to determine whether Mims' votes will be validated.
