Election Filing Chaos:
Democratic Party Raises Serious Administrative Concerns
Over Republican Ballot Filings
(Fort Worth, Texas) — The Tarrant County Democratic Party has formally challenged the ballot filings of dozens of Republican candidates, citing widespread statutory noncompliance, significant breakdowns in basic filing procedures and other mistakes that make their petitions invalid under Texas law.
The challenges, filed pursuant to the Texas Election Code, identify recurring deficiencies across multiple candidates, including incumbents, that render numerous petition pages legally insufficient for ballot placement under Texas’ strict, voter-fraud compliance standards.
“These aren’t minor errors,” said Allison Campolo, PhD, Chair of the Tarrant County Democratic Party. “We’re talking about petitions that don’t meet basic legal requirements, even though it’s very clear about what is needed for a candidate to appear on the ballot. Our concerns are grounded in statute, documentation, process and the protection of Tarrant County citizens. Texas law is clear.”
Some of the most common problems include:
- Altered candidate information – Candidate names, offices and even dates were crossed out or rewritten after voters signed, leaving no guarantee that voters approved the correct candidate.
- Incomplete or missing voter information – Petitions often lacked essential details like the voter’s address, date of birth, or voter ID number, which are required to confirm eligibility.
- Missing circulator details and notarization – Petition pages must be verified by each person who collected the signatures and notarized to make it valid. Many pages were missing this crucial information.
- Missing or invalid signatures – Many voters did not sign the petitions directly with pen and ink, a legal requirement known as a “wet signature,” which ensures the voter personally approves the petition, as required, specifically to prevent voter fraud.
- Redacted public information – Most petitions had the signer’s birthdate removed, making verification impossible and violating transparency rules. All candidate petitions and applications are public information upon filing. Despite requests by TCDP to TCGOP for unredacted copies of these public records, the TCGOP has refused to provide unredacted copies. Because many petition pages did not include a voter registration number, the redaction of dates of birth made it impossible to verify whether the signatures satisfied the requirements of the election code, and are considered in error.
“What is most striking,” said attorney Steve Maxwell, former TCDP chairman, “is the contradiction. The Republican party is the same organization that regularly claims heightened concern for election integrity. Yet the most basic administrative safeguards were not followed in their own process. If one demands integrity from voters, it must apply to the candidates filings as well.”
The Democratic Party emphasized that the challenges do not accuse voters of wrongdoing and do not presume intent, but instead point to systemic procedural failures within the Tarrant County Republican Party’s process, which undermines confidence in the ballot review process.
As the Tarrant County GOP Chair, Tim Davis was quoted as saying earlier this week, “Elections begin with the integrity of the process. If you can’t follow the rules to get on the ballot, you can’t be trusted to enforce them from the bench.”
TCDP emphasized that these challenges are about following election code, not politics and requests that the Republican Party as the filing authority, apply the law as written and declare the following candidates legally insufficient for ballot placement:
Debbie Adame, candidate for the 231st District Court
Doug Allen, candidate for Tarrant County Criminal District Court No. 3
Katherine Allen, candidate for the 324th District Court
Amy Allin, candidate for the 297th District Court
Leslie Barrows, candidate for the 231st District Court
Norma Bazan, candidate for Tarrant County Criminal Court No. 4
Brook Bell, candidate for Tarrant County Probate Court No. 2
Brian Bolton, candidate for Tarrant County Criminal Court No. 9
Bill Brandt, candidate for Justice of the Peace, Precinct 3
Patricia Burns, candidate for Tarrant County Probate Court No. 1
Jason Charbonnet, candidate for Justice of the Peace, Precinct 6
John Chupp, candidate for the 141st District Court
Brad Clark, candidate for Tarrant County Criminal Court No. 5
David Cook, candidate for Tarrant County Criminal Court No. 1
Mary Curnutt, candidate for Justice of the Peace, Precinct 2
Rashelle Fetty, candidate for the 231st District Court
Dusty Fillmore, candidate for the 236th District Court
Christopher Gregory, candidate for Justice of the Peace, Precinct 4
Randi Hartin, candidate for Tarrant County Criminal Court No. 6
Ryan Hill, candidate for the 371st District Court
Mike Hrabal, candidate for Tarrant County Court at Law No. 3
An Lee “Andy” Hsu, candidate for the 324th District Court
Steven Jumes, candidate for the 323rd District Court
Alexander Kim, candidate for the 323rd District Court
Trent Loftin, candidate for Tarrant County Criminal Court No. 10
Julie Lugo, candidate for the 372nd District Court
Bob McCoy, candidate for Tarrant County Criminal Court No. 3
James Munford, candidate for the 322nd District Court
Deborah Nekhom, candidate for Tarrant County Criminal Court No. 4
Kenneth Newell, candidate for the 233rd District Court
Paige Payne, candidate for Justice of the Peace, Precinct 7
Don Pierson, candidate for Tarrant County Court at Law No. 1
Andy Porter, candidate for Tarrant County Criminal District Court No. 4
Joseph Robinson, candidate for House District 92
Ricky Rodriguez, candidate for Justice of the Peace, Precinct 1
Jennifer Rymell, candidate for Tarrant County Court at Law No. 2
Lee Sorrells, candidate for the 432nd District Court
Eric Starnes, candidate for Tarrant County Court at Law No. 2
Cynthia Terry, candidate for the 325th District Court
Susan Valliant, candidate for State House District 94
Charles Vanover, candidate for Tarrant County Criminal Court No. 8
Sherri Wagner, candidate for Tarrant County Criminal District Court No. 1
Carey Walker, candidate for Tarrant County Criminal District Court No. 2
