TYLER, Texas — Willie Mims has served the Smith County community for 15 years as a deputy constable for Precinct 1. He will take it a step further as constable.
“I’m excited, but then I’m not excited and then I’m excited,” said Mims.
Judge Jim Parsons made a final judgement March 16 “revoking its oral decision made in Court on March 12, 2020,” resulting in Mims as the winner of the election.
Mims journey to the position has not been easy, as he and another former candidate, the then appointed Precinct 1 Constable, Bobby Garmon, were in a legal battle. The controversy began after Mims turned in his paperwork to be a candidate.
“They challenged my petition signatures, but it was too late to challenge it,” said Mims.
Mims’ petition had already been accepted by the Democratic Chair and, according to Texas Election Code, it is up to the chair to reject a petition if there is a mistake and to provide a reason for the rejection.
Garmon went on to file a lawsuit in January with the intent to remove Mims’ name from the March 3 ballot, the hearing took place Jan. 21 and Judge Parsons granted a temporary injunction on Mims’ votes. This meant if Mims won the majority of the votes, the candidates would go back to court.
“The court hearing never should have happened, in my opinion,” said Mims. “I just feel like it was a way to shy me away from the election.”
Mims then filed an appeal to the lawsuit, which he says was a way to let people know he was still in the race. The appeal mentioned, Texas Election Code was broken with the timeliness of the lawsuit filings and the date of the court hearing because the early voting ballots had already been mailed out.
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.”
After the election, Mims secured the majority of the votes with 51%, meaning he was heading back to court.
“The voters came out and put me in, they voted for me,” said Mims.
Yet on March 12, Parsons decided Mims was ineligible for the position.
“Well he didn’t say my votes didn’t count, in so many words,” Parsons explained. “He decided that the people that came in second and third would have a runoff.”
Then the morning of March 17, Mims says he received an unexpected phone call from Garmon with surprising news.
“Bobby, he was the one that informed me first,” explained Mims. “He says 'Hey, I want to congratulate you on your win.' I said 'What are you talking about?' Well the judge reversed his decision. We do still work together, there aren’t any hard feelings toward him.
Mims says he did not share the news until after he spoke with his lawyer to make sure it was legitimate.
“I think the judge with an open mind went back and read the case law, read the law with the election code,” he said. “We’ll never know why [Parsons] changed his mind.”
Inside the Final Judgement, the documents show what Mims’ had said throughout his campaign was correct, the challenge and lawsuit had expired according to Texas Election Code.
“I want to thank all the people that supported me through this.”