Roughly 2,400 Coachella Valley Unified School District (CVUSD) voters in Imperial County will soon be able to cast their ballots for the school district race after a “clerical error” prevented them from doing so earlier this month.
At a hearing held this afternoon, Riverside County Superior Court Judge Chad Firetag approved an agreement between all parties involved in the suit, including both Riverside and Imperial counties as well as the school district and the six candidates, setting March 4, 2025, as the date for the special election.
Until then, the Imperial County Registrar of Voters (ROV) will need to “take all actions necessary” to ensure that all Imperial County voters who were eligible to cast a ballot in the CVUSD election held earlier this month are allowed to vote.
“This is an important step forward for us all, especially for the voters of Imperial County, District 3, who now have the opportunity to cast their votes in this election,” CVUSD said in a statement. “Through our continued advocacy, we are grateful to the Imperial County Registrar’s Office for its commitment to empowering the voters of District 3, ensuring that they have a voice in the future of the Coachella Valley Unified School District.”
The Imperial County ROV will be required to issue vote-by-mail ballots to all impacted voters and open an in-person polling location for one election day in one of the nine impacted precincts, as it did for the Nov. 5 election, according to the order.
The order also prevents the Riverside County ROV from releasing the results of the CVUSD election for Riverside County voters until after Imperial County has conducted the special election. Once the election is completed, the two counties will combine the March 4 results from Imperial County voters with the Nov. 5 results from Riverside County voters to get the final results.
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The registrars will have until March 18, 2025, to certify results of the CVUSD Board of Education election. The results for all other elections in both Riverside and Imperial counties will still need to be certified no later than Dec. 5.
The decision comes less than a month after the Riverside County ROV released a statement on social media that it would not be able to release the results of the CVUSD election for the Riverside County voters due to a temporary restraining order (TRO).
The request for a TRO — jointly filed on Election Day by the Imperial County Board of Supervisors, CVUSD, Riverside County ROV Art Tinoco and Imperial County ROV Linsey Dale — argued that releasing the results from CVUSD voters in Riverside County would cause “irreparable harm,” and potentially invalidate the entire election process since voters across both counties are able to vote for all CVUSD Board of Education seats, which this year included Trustee Areas 1, 2 and 4.
The parties must file an initial return no later than April 5, 2025, stating what has been done to comply with the judge’s order. A subsequent hearing has been set for April 11, 2025, but Firetag said that hearing may be removed from the calendar if it’s determined that no further review is needed.
The Riverside County ROV and Imperial County ROV did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
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