Although the filing deadline has now passed for the upcoming municipal elections, mayoral hopefuls are calling foul while the incumbent candidate is heralding that he is running unopposed.
Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson announced on Monday that he was running unopposed for a second term as mayor — the first to do so since a similarly named mayor, Erik Jonsson, did so in 1967.
“It is the greatest honor of my life to serve as the mayor of my hometown,” Johnson expressed in a press release provided to The Dallas Express. “We have achieved significant, measurable results for the residents of Dallas over the past four years, and I look forward to continuing this incredible progress in my second term.”
However, mayoral hopeful Jrmar Jefferson claims he is wrongfully being kept off the ballot despite having met all the necessary qualifications.
The campaign asserted in an email to The Dallas Express that Jefferson “is a candidate, according to state law” as his “application was approved and submitted on time.”
The statement claimed, “Jrmar ‘JJ’ Jefferson presented the City Secretary and Dallas Elections Manager, Parris Long, with over 1,050 signatures, nominating Jefferson to be on the ballot for Mayor.”
However, according to the campaign’s claims, out of 107 pages of signatures, the Dallas City Secretary chose to only look at 52 of those pages: “55 pages of 540+ registered voters will not be considered.”
In order to be placed on the ballot for Dallas mayor, a candidate must collect a minimum of 404 valid signatures, according to WFAA.
“The City Secretary stated that the additional pages were not counted because they were not submitted in a timely manner and were incomplete,” the Jefferson campaign continued. “We know this statement to be erroneous.”
“This is unethical, illegal, and consists of corruption,” the statement alleged. “The city secretary used coercion to prevent people from filing for office. Dallas voters should have had a choice, and nobody should run unchallenged.”
The campaign further informed The Dallas Express that it will be suing “City Secretary, Bilierae Johnson, for fraud and candidate coercion as well as additional torts for constitutional violations.”
“Every registered voter who signed the nomination papers and is a registered voter in the city of Dallas will be counted,” the Jefferson campaign concluded. “Together, We can fix Dallas.”
The Dallas Express reached out to the City Secretary’s Office for clarification on why Jefferson was disqualified but did not receive a response prior to publication.
Another would-be challenger to Johnson’s re-election, Kendel Richardson, was kept off the ballot for allegedly not having enough signatures.
Richardson suggested to The Dallas Express, “The system of getting signatures needs to change.”
He claimed, “Most people did not want to sign the ballots because they didn’t want to give their birth dates … Older people felt disrespected you asking for their birthdate.”
Richardson also said external factors were to blame for his failure to qualify.
“The weather was bad during the month to get signatures,” he suggested, “shutting down the city for a week and then cold weather after that, and people didn’t want to stand outside to sign.”
In the other races for the 14 city council seats, roughly 40 candidates have been deemed qualified for the City of Dallas elections, according to information from the City Secretary’s Office.