A clerical error cost Brenda Espinoza of Perry a place on the Nov. 2 ballot for the second-ward seat on the Perry City Council, but she came away undaunted by the news and said she will seek office again in 2023.
The three-person committee formed to consider the objection raised to Espinoza’s candidacy — composed of Perry Mayor John Andorf, Perry City Clerk Liz Hix and Perry City Council member Dr. Randy McCaulley — voted unanimously Thursday to remove her name from the ballot because if she were elected, she would be ineligible to serve as the second-ward council person because she lives in the third ward.
Espinoza told the committee that she understood the law and was resigned to watch the second-ward race from the sidelines.
“I do want to make it known that I received a phone call of the fact that I was ineligible the day after the deadline,” she told the committee. “Now if I would have received that call just the day before, I could have written in for at large on my petition and filed in time.”
The committee was sympathetic to Espinoza’s predicament.
“As we all know and agree, this was an unfortunate series of events,” said Andorf, who chaired the meeting. “We always encourage people to run. It’s nice to have as many people running as possible for our local elections, both school and city. You tried to run but, unfortunately, because you do not live in ward two, you’re ineligible, as you understand, and as you also understand, on your petition, you’re correct, if you would have indicated at large, you could be on the ballot but, unfortunately, that didn’t happen either. So according to state and city rules, you’re ineligible to be on the ballot for the at large as well as the ward-two seat, unfortunately.”
Espinoza said she is bullish on Perry and will try again to attain public office in 2023.
“I will take this as a learning experience and will return either to run for a position in ward three or the at-large seat,” she said. “I look forward to still being involved with the city and helping in any way I can.”
Andorf thanked the near-miss council candidate warmly and encouraged her to get involved in any of the town’s many governmental bodies.
“We always have boards and commissions that are looking for volunteers, and we’re always looking for good people to serve on those,” he said. “Also, as you indicated in your article that I think I read in ThePerryNews.com, I agree with you that we need more diversity in our city government and our city employees to represent our diverse population.”
