Conroe ballot snafu heads to appeals court

The case to remove two candidates from Conroe’s May 4 election ballot is headed back to the 9th Court of Appeals after a judge denied a temporary injunction and blamed city processes for the unlawful filing of two ballot applications.

Visiting 506th state District Judge Albert McCaig on Monday acknowledged election code violations by City Secretary Soco Gorjon in accepting applications of Mayor Pro Tem Curt Maddux and Council Member Todd Yancey. He blamed the city, which filed suit against Gorjon, for lack of training.

“Some of the optics that are concerning is when we have council members directing a direct employee to take action, and whenever I refer to that, the city secretary is at the at-will employment of the city council and therefore, she gets placed into this position that you obey someone with the authority that can fire and hire or you violate the election code and your own responsibilities in office,” McCaig said.

“So, Ms. Gorjon is in a no-win situation. As we look at this issue of election integrity, the comment was made the city of Conroe is not on trial. I take great issue with that. Frankly, the city of Conroe and its procedures, policies and the training of its personnel is exactly the party on trial.”

McCaig said that if Gorjon had been properly trained and given better legal guidance, “we wouldn’t be sitting here today letting a subjective judge decide what an election is going to be.”

McCaig said a courtroom is the

wrong place for an election to be decided.

On March 15, the 9th Court of Appeals dismissed the case to remove Maddux and Yancey, stating the “Texas Supreme Court has ‘long and consistently held, ‘(t)he public interest is best served when public offices are decided by fair and vigorous elections, not technicalities leading to default.’”

Gorjon confirmed March 1 that Maddux and Yancey were not present when city staff notarized and filed their applications Jan. 17. She said March 8 she would not invalidate the applications “based on this technicality” in a letter to the Houston Chronicle and City Council.

Yancey filed to run for mayor against Duke Coon and Kristin WilkinsonGuardino, and Maddux is seeking a second term for his Council Place 2 and is facing Shana Arthur and Betty Boren Avery.

Coon and Arthur both filed petitions to remove Yancey and Maddux from the ballot March 12.

Both Maddux and Yancey testified Monday they instructed Gorjon to get the applications off their desks at city hall, notarize and file them on their behalf.

“I wanted to be first,” said Maddux, who was at a speaking engagement when Gorjon filed his application Jan. 17. “I never once thought I had done anything wrong.”

Yancey testified he was in Colorado when Gorjon notarized and filed his application.

“I wanted to be first,” he said. “I was proud to be running for mayor.”

Gorjon told the court this was the first time she had notarized and filed ballot applications for council members when they were not present.

Gorjon testified that part of her responsibility as city secretary is notarizing City Council documents. She said a “standard operating procedure” was to have them sign the front of the notary book once and use that for all future notarizations.

Maddux and Yancey testified they did not sign the notary book until March 4.

“I’m not saying it was a cover-up,” attorney Cris Feldman said about the timing. “But they were put there for a reason to look like standard operating procedure.”

Feldman represents Coon and Arthur.

Nathan Steadman, who represents Gorjon, said the city will likely make some changes.

“I don’t know if Ms. Gorjon knew it was a violation of the law,” Steadman said. “But she has said going forward ‘we will change (the procedure).’”