TEXAS COURT OF APPEALS, THIRD DISTRICT, AT AUSTIN
NO. 03-17-00871-CV
In re Danny Valdez
ORIGINAL PROCEEDING FROM TRAVIS COUNTY
MEMORANDUM OPINION
Relator Danny Valdez has filed a petition for writ of mandamus asking this Court
to extend the statutory deadline for him to file his application and to compel the respondent, the
Honorable Gilberto Hinojosa, the Texas Democratic Party Chair, to certify Valdez as a candidate
for District 80 of the Texas House of Representatives in the Democratic Party primary election. See
Tex. Gov’t Code § 22.221; Tex. Elec. Code §§ 161.009, 273.061; see also Tex. R. App. P. 52.1.
Valdez mailed his application to an incorrect address, and he did not become
aware that it had not reached the Texas Democratic Party Chair until after the filing deadline. He
attempted to hand deliver the application after the filing deadline, but it was rejected as untimely.
The address to which Valdez originally mailed the application was a former business address of the
Texas Democratic Party. The Party moved to its new address in 2015. Valdez asserts that the former
address continued to show up on the Bing Internet search engine until December 13, 2017, and that
the Democratic Party Chair had a statutory duty to correct the address with Internet search engines.
We deny the petition for writ of mandamus. See Tex. R. App. P. 52.8; see also
In re Hopkins, 181 S.W.3d 919, 924-28 (Tex. App.—Houston [14th Dist.] 2006, orig. proceeding)
(Guzman, J., concurring) (concluding no violation of express or implied statutory duty of election
official and noting that “[t]he legislature has unambiguously placed the risk of untimely delivery or
nondelivery on the candidate who mails his or her application and filing fee, and the facts presented
neither justify nor authorize a departure from that allocation”).
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Cindy Olson Bourland, Justice
Before Justices Puryear, Field, and Bourland
Filed: December 28, 2017
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