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Residents urge delay after write-in candidate’s removal; court appoints interim justice of the peace for Precinct 4
Summary
Speakers including Dr. Veronica Brooks and community organizers asked Bexar County Commissioners Court to remove item 47 and allow voters to decide after Brooks says she was wrongly removed from the primary ballot; the court approved the interim appointment with one abstention.
Bexar County Commissioners Court on April 14 appointed an interim justice of the peace for Precinct 4 despite public pleas to delay the action so voters could decide the contested race.
Dr. Veronica Brooks, who identified herself as a write-in candidate for Justice of the Peace, Precinct 4, Place 1, told the court she was removed from the primary ballot after the Bexar County Democratic Party allegedly submitted incorrect names and birth dates and excluded about 130 of her voters, many of them military. “They accidentally typed in wrong names, wrong birth dates and they left out my military people,” she said. “So therefore, they said I was 3 signatures short and they took off a 130 of my voters and it was incorrect.”
Speakers who signed up under citizens to be heard called the appointment premature and argued it risked disenfranchising voters. Chuck Slaughter, founder of the grassroots Black Independent Boaters Association, said appointing a candidate who remains on the ballot sends a message that the interim designee is favored and urged the court to “remove that item 47 from the agenda or vote no against it.” John Derek Perdue also addressed the court in support of Brooks, saying her campaign experience qualified her as a viable write-in option.
Commissioner Calvert acknowledged errors in the party’s handling of signatures but said staff had vetted the appointment and that it was too late in the process to undo the administrative steps. Commissioner Moody announced he would abstain because the matter stems from a Democratic primary and he felt it was inappropriate for him to weigh in; his abstention was recorded before the vote. The motion to appoint the interim justice carried.
Court staff also noted they would correct the effective date for the appointment to May 1, 2026, and the court pulled item 25, a real-estate/resale-deed matter, for additional administrative work.
The court did not reverse the ballot removal during this meeting; commissioners moved on to scheduled proclamations and other business.
What happens next: the interim appointment takes effect on May 1 as the court directed; the candidate Dr. Veronica Brooks said she would continue to press for a fair opportunity for voters to decide the seat.
