The Commissioner’s Court’s decision to swear-in Roland Sanchez did not happen without controversy
by Michael Robinson | Uvalde Hesperian
Photos by Diana Olvedo-Karau
11-13-24
Uvalde County Commissioners voted in favor of swearing-in Roland Sanchez for the unexpired term for the Justice of the Peace Precinct 6 Seat at the Tuesday, November 12th, 2024 court proceedings.
Nieto Luna who was the previous Justice of the Peace for Precinct died on April 6th this year during his term. Following Nieto’s passing, the Uvalde County Commissioners Court decided not to fill the unexpired term until after the 2024 November 5th election.
According to Uvalde County Judge Bill Mitchell, the appointment was only for the unexpired term which will come to an end December 31st, 2024.
On November 5th, 2024, the Uvalde County Elections Office released the unofficial results of the J.P. Precinct 6 race where Sanchez received 807 votes edging out Mario Valdez who had 807 votes. Write-in Candidate Claudia Rodriguez received 204 votes.
The Commissioner’s Court’s decision to swear-in Roland Sanchez did not happen without controversy.
“There are still over two hundred provisional ballots that have not been counted and reviewed, there are possibly military ballots. There are also some mail-in ballots. The election has not been certified, can’t be certified until all of the ballots have been counted,” Diana Olvedo-Karau said.
As pointed out by Diana Olvedo-Karau speaking on the topic at Tuesday’s court meeting, she asked why Commissioners would choose to fill the unexpired term now when previously, the Court voted not to appoint someone to fill the position after Nieto’s death but rather wait until the November 5th election.
“Does the statute allow for an appointment now after the fact?” Diana Karau said.
Mitchell said that the term is only being filled until December 31st.
Also questioned at the meeting by Emma Trimble who also spoke at the meeting was the legality of appointing Sanchez to the seat for the unexpired term before the votes were canvassed and the results became official.
” Seeing this in the paper (the Uvalde Leader-News) was quite disturbing and the fact that it actually says that you will be swearing in J.P. 6 is certainly is against election code: number 1. Secondly it is highly disrespectful to the other candidates. How do we just decide that we’re going to circumvent the code and just swear Mr. Sanchez?” Trimble said.
Trimble continued stating, “The agenda item here is that you are circumventing election code.”
Commissioner Yeackle said, ” I concede that the newspaper article was a bit confusing.”
Mitchell stated that he doesn’t write the newspaper and said, “Take it up with the press.”
