Davila lawsuit over ballot access rejected

So much for that.

Diana Davila

Amidst claims of illegal signature gathering and improper mailers in an East End justice of the peace race, a visiting senior judge ruled against a Houston Independent School Board trustee in her suit against the county Democratic Party for rejecting her application to be on the primary ballot.

HISD Trustee’s Diana Davila’s lawsuit, filed last week, stated that she had submitted a petition to the Harris County Democratic Party containing 310 signatures that would qualify her to be on the ballot, but had omitted printing the name of the person circulating the petitions in an affidavit on a single line at the bottom of each petition.

The Democratic Party chairwoman rejected many of the signatures on that count. She said that she could not decipher the names registered as those collecting the signatures and said Davila could not be on the ballot.

Judge J.D. Langley conceded in a Thursday court hearing that may be a technicality, but said he was hesitant to upend the election process or reverse the Democratic Party chairwoman.

“The court should stay away from it,” Langley said.

He also cited state statute that he interpreted as Davila having passed the deadline to amend her forms.

See here for the background. I’m of two minds about this. On the one hand, it’s better to let candidates be on the ballot rather than disqualify them on small technical deficiencies in their applications. On the other hand, the requirements they have to meet are not onerous and the vast majority of candidates had no trouble with them. As noted in the story, Davila is not a first time candidate, and she knew what was needed. This isn’t that hard, and I can’t say I have a great deal of sympathy. Better luck next time.

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7 Responses to Davila lawsuit over ballot access rejected

  1. Manny Barrera says:

    The Judge punted and the cost to appeal too high. But you are right it was an oversight that should not have occurred on the part of Davila. But I don’t think that the Democrats do themselves any favors when they constantly pick and choose who they want on the ballot by way of disqualifying them rather than letting the voters decide.

    When the people that run the show are shown the door the Harris Democratic Party may prosper. Now they depend on the National Candidates to get votes out. They can thank Hillary for the extra Latino voters in 2016 for carrying Harris County.

    Since I don’t have that white privilege like many of the people that are very progressive, I have to pick and choose as to what party will be more beneficial to me an my family not just in the present but in the future. While I have done as well or maybe better under Trump his racism leaves much to be desired for the future of people that are not European looking.

    https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/12/31/trump-white-working-class-history-216200

  2. Manny Barrera says:

    This is not related to the article above, but it is related to a person maybe two that are constantly mentioned in a negative manner by the blogger, YNF and Wilson.

    Ask yourself why I have to go outside of Houston media to find an article about HCC and that they are being investigated? Here is the article, https://texasmonitor.org/chris-oliver-bribery-hcc-accreditation-question/

    Oliver’s problem were well known for years, I wrote about it in 2012, here, http://inside-hcc.com/VeselkaInterviews.html

    The Houston Press also had a few article in the beginning, but they all stopped for a while and now they are back to not writing negative things about HCC. Why is that? I have a theory, like whores they have sold themselves for the ad buys by Houston Community College. That technique was used during the reign of Art Tyler. They were spending millions of dollars in advertisements.

    Capo runs the board according to what I have heard, why is he never taken to task by the progressives? Do they see only wrong when it is someone they don’t like?

  3. brad m says:

    When the Democrats and Republicans start paying for their own primary elections I’ll start listening to this bellyaching.

  4. C.L. says:

    @Manny…. the Democrats aren’t picking and choosing who’s going to be on the ballot, the rules, regs, and Law is. Shame on D. Davila for not getting it right to begin with.

  5. Manny Barrera says:

    C.L. of course they are they have done to numerous candidates over the years. Yes shame on her but the Democrats have a hand on it. They review them, tell the people everything is fine and wait five days to tell them they are not.

  6. Julian Deleon says:

    As suspected, Diana was not successful with her complaint against HCDP.

    Diana will have a difficult time winning re-election to the school board because her commitment to education and students is now vulnerable and can be challenged.

    Diana sent out a mail piece over the holiday advertising herself as a current Justice of the Peace.
    This is a serious integrity issue that was met with a dose of reality.

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