Wong Sues HUSD To Get Back On Ballot

In Which: HUSD invented arbitrary hurdles to candidacy. Tom Wong cites the wrong part of Election Code. And the Court makes it easier to run for School Board.

HUSD Board Race Upset By Lawsuit

Tom Wong and Luis Reynoso are back on the ballot. They were initially ineligible for candidacy because they hadn’t collected 100 nomination signatures. However, Wong filed a lawsuit against HUSD on August 13th alleging the signature requirement was unlawful. And unfortunately for HUSD, he was right.

Signature Requirements

The signature requirement started for the 2022 election. According to a statement from the Registrar of Voters (ROV), the then-superintendent of HUSD Matt Wayne sent a notice on May 16, 2022 informing the ROV “that [HUSD] would require candidates for a position on the HUSD School Board to get 100 nomination signatures to qualify for the ballot.”

That year, Tom Wong visited the ROV on July 28 to pull papers for candidacy, returning to the ROV with the required signatures on or about August 10th. He made it on the ballot just fine. The ROV implied that if he could do it before, he should be able to do it again.

This time, the ROV received a similar notice from the current HUSD Superintendent, Jason Reimann, again requiring 100 signatures to qualify for the ballot. However, Tom Wong was running late this time around. “…[O]n August 9, 2024, at approximately 4:00 p.m.—about one hour before the filing deadline— Mr. Wong visited our Office and pulled nomination papers to attempt to qualify for the ballot,” the ROV said. “Mr. Wong submitted no nomination signatures before the filing deadline at 5:00 p.m. the same day.”

And although Joe Ramos failed to file papers—extending the deadline to August 14th—the ROV said Tom Wong only submitted 38 signatures before the cutoff. Luis Reynoso also seemed to fall short of the signature threshold—though he also pulled papers late—and was disqualified from the ballot. As of Thursday August 15th, the only candidates on the ballot were: Peter Bufete, Sara Prada, Austin Bruckner-Carrillo, Sophia Jauregui, and Calyn Kelley.

Wong Takes HUSD To Court

Between signature gathering efforts, Tom Wong filed a lawsuit against HUSD. “The requirement of 100 nominating signatures, imposed without any legal basis, is arbitrary, capricious, and detrimental to the rights of candidates and potential candidates,” the lawsuit reads. “The unlawful imposition of this candidacy requirement has caused significant harm to multiple and potential candidates.”

Wong then asked that the signature requirement be eliminated for this election and in the future be restricted to the amount laid out in California Elections Code—a minimum of 20 and not more than 40. He also asked for an filing extension of 10 days and for HUSD to cover the cost of candidate statements for all candidates “as a remedy for harm caused by the unlawful requirement.”

The lawsuit alleged that there was no record of the signature requirement anywhere in the HUSD Bylaws or Policy Manual. And he attached the Policy Manual to prove it.

ROV Dodges Any Responsibility

Although Tom Wong argued that the number of nominating signatures is governed by Election Code, Alameda County Registrar of Voters Tim Dupuis argued that they just facilitate things. “[School] districts, including HUSD, set the number of nominating signatures required for a candidate to qualify for the ballot for their school board,” he said in a declaration, “Our office evaluates nomination petitions for those school board races according to the qualification requirements set by the school districts.”

The ROV then said that any changes to the ballot have to occur by August 30th in order to meet the printing deadlines. All this was laid out on August 28th—just 2 days before the deadline.

Lightning-Fast Justice

Anyone who’s gone to Jury Duty knows that a short court case can take several weeks. But Judge Michael Markman wrote up a ruling in a single day. I wasn’t about to buy every single document in this case—the two I bought already cost me $19—but according to the final ruling, the HUSD Board tried to argue that Tom Wong needed to file more paperwork—taking more time—before getting a ruling. Judge Markman disagreed and pushed hard to get everything sorted before the election deadline.

The Board also tried to argue that Wong cited the wrong statues, invalidating his argument. “The fact that Petitioner identified the wrong statute does not mean that his over-arching contention is wrong,” Judge Markman wrote. Although the Board and the ROV argued that School Boards have broad powers over their own elections from Education Code, Judge Markman argued that it’s actually about the power to take action on school management not “to impose novel election procedures.”

But even if the Board did have the authority to add a signature requirement, they didn’t do it by the books anyway. There was no indication that the School Board had ever taken any vote on the signature requirement or put it in any official policy anywhere that the Judge could find. “The court has been unable to identify any authority for the 100-signature requirement imposed by the Board in its elections since 2022,” he wrote.

In the end, because there is no record of a signature requirement anywhere in writing, the Judge ruled in favor of Tom Wong. “In summary, [the HUSD Board] had no basis in law to impose a 100-signature requirement in order to qualify to run for election to a Board seat. [Tom Wong] has demonstrated that he is entitled to be placed on the ballot.”

Wong Comes Out On Top

Tom Wong didn’t get every single thing that he asked for. There is no indication that HUSD is going to have to pay for candidate statements and there was no chance for the nomination period to be extended. The former just wasn’t addressed in anything I read, but the latter was just practically impossible. The ROV does have printing deadlines and those can’t be changed.

Joe Ramos also didn’t get back on the ballot like Tom Wong wanted. The Judge ruled that all six candidates who were affected by the signature requirement should be allowed back on the Ballot—and that included Ramos. But the Judge also said that the candidates had to comply with all the other nomination requirements and it’s possible that Ramos just… never completed his paperwork in the first place.

But Luis Reynoso and Tom Wong are both on the November ballot, without needing to meet the signature requirement. The signature requirement is also void, at least until the Board actually votes it into official policy. But even then, the Judge left the door wide open for another potential lawsuit if it goes above 40 signatures.

I’m no fan of Tom Wong, but this was a mess of the School Board’s own making and highlights the importance of holding the powerful to account. HUSD made up its own rules to keep incumbents in power by creating a 100 signature requirement—almost double what you need to run for the House of Representatives. Someone needs to keep an eye on them—this lawsuit makes clear they can’t do it themselves.