By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
A Del Rio man seeking to run as an independent candidate for Precinct 1 county commissioner won’t appear on the November ballot because he has missed a crucial filing deadline.
Del Rioan Arturo Rodriguez filed a “declaration of intent to run
as an independent candidate for the general election for state and county officers” on Dec. 11, 2023.
Rodriguez, a retired federal law enforcement officer and real estate agent, had until 5 p.m. Thursday to file a candidate application along with a nominating petition to appear on the ballot as an independent candidate, according to the Texas Election Code.
The state’s election code requires candidates who seek to run as independents to file the application and nominating petition with the county judge.
The 830 Times was with County Judge Lewis G. Owens Jr. in his office at 5 p.m. Thursday as Owens and members of his staff waited for Rodriguez to file the required paperwork.
Minutes after the 5 p.m. deadline, Owens announced that Rodriguez had missed the deadline to file his candidate application and the accompanying nominating petition.
Owens previously told the 830 Times the nominating petition Rodriguez was required to file along with his candidate application called for Rodriguez to gather the signatures of either 500 registered voters or a number equal to 5 percent of the total votes cast in Precinct 1 in the last gubernatorial election in 2022.
Owens said the state election code also requires that the registered voters who sign the petition cannot have voted in either the Democratic Party or the Republican Party Primary Elections earlier this year.
After Rodriguez had filed his declaration of intent to run as an independent candidate, he also ran unsuccessfully for a seat on the Del Rio City Council in the May 4 city election.
Since he has not met the requirements to run as an independent candidate, Rodriguez still has the opportunity to file to run as a write-in candidate. The first day to file as a write-in is July 20, according to “a calendar of important election dates” found on the website of the Texas Secretary of State.
The 830 Times emailed Rodriguez at 6 p.m. Thursday, requesting a comment on his missing of the filing deadline, but had received no reply as of Friday morning.
The writer can be reached at delriomagnoliafan@gmail.com
