In Re Duke W. Coon and Shana R. Arthur v. the State of Texas

• Court: Court of Appeals of Texas
• Decided: March 27, 2024
• Docket: 09-24-00110-CV
• Status: Published

Opinion

In The

Court of Appeals

Ninth District of Texas at Beaumont

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NO. 09-24-00110-CV __________________

IN RE DUKE W. COON AND SHANA R. ARTHUR

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Original Proceeding Montgomery County, Texas __________________________________________________________________

MEMORANDUM OPINION

In an original proceeding, two candidates for elected positions in the

municipal government for Conroe, Texas, Relators Duke W. Coon and Shana R.

Arthur, jointly filed a petition for a writ of mandamus to compel the Respondent,

Soco M. Gorjón, to rescind her acceptance of applications to appear on the ballot for

the May 4, 2024 General Election for the City of Conroe that were submitted by

Real Parties in Interest Bobby Todd Yancey and Curt L. Maddux and to reject the

applications. Relators assert that Gorjón accepted the applications, but she should

have rejected the applications when each application was received by Gorjón. They

ask this Court to compel her to now reject the applications as a ministerial duty

1 imposed by law in connection with the holding of the election. See Tex. Elec. Code

Ann. §§ 273.061-.063; see also Tex. R. App. P. 52.

We reviewed the petition and the appendix. We conclude Relators have not

shown that the Election Code imposes a ministerial duty upon Gorjón to revoke her

acceptance of the applications and reject Yancey’s and Maddux’s applications so

their names will not appear on the ballot. We deny the petition for a writ of

mandamus. See Tex. R. App. P. 52.8(a).

PETITION DENIED.

PER CURIAM

Submitted on March 27, 2024 Opinion Delivered March 27, 2024

Before Golemon, C.J., Johnson and Wright, JJ.