Filing deadline pushed to Feb. 1

By Brian M. Cuaron
Posted on 12/16/2011 at 7:30 p.m.


The U.S. District Court in San Antonio has ordered Feb. 1 as a new filing deadline for 2012 Texas elections.

The order was related to a dispute over the state's redistricted, legislative maps. The order said the new schedule was contingent on the court entering redistricting plans for the state's house and senate, and congressional seats by Feb. 1. However, the order said it didn't assure that such redistricting plans would be made by the new filing deadline.


When the reopened filing deadline would begin would be determined by the court at a later date, the order said. The original filing period was set to expire on Monday.

The U.S. Supreme Court has a hearing on January 9 and the hope is that the court will determine the boundaries for the state's senate and house, as well as congressional representatives, after that hearing, wrote George Matthews, the county's elections administrator, in an email.


The new filing deadline will be open to all and will allow candidates who have filed to correct, change or withdraw previous filings, Matthews wrote. So any filings done by the Monday would still be valid if it is correct. 


Since petition signatures are valid for 180 days, there should be no problems with names expiring before Feb. 1, Matthews wrote.

The order had the chair of the Victoria County Democratic Party baffled.

"This is just ridiculous," said Kelli Gill, the party's chair.

Michael Cloud, chair of the county's Republican party, could not be reached for comment.

The previous filing deadline was Monday, after the court extended it from the original deadline of Thursday. 


The court also had pushed the primary elections to April 3 from the originally scheduled date of March 6.

Extending the filing deadline would give the state's Democratic party more time to find candidates to run against sitting Republican officials, Gill said.

Candidates who filed via petition won't have to file a new petition, Gill added. Councilman Gabriel Soliz and Danny Garcia have both filed a petition to run for Precinct 1 commissioner.

However, according to the order, any petition must have valid signatures from registered voters in the territory of the sought-after elected office. Essentially, Gill said, without the issue of the legislative maps settled, candidates are not sure what territory - and, thereby, voters - will be included for the office they are seeking.