File 02 · Her residency
Theresa Garza's residency file.
A judge disqualified her as a candidate, and votes for her were not counted.
She left a Kansas City Council race in February 2015 amid a residency suit over the city's two-year requirement. Election records showed she voted in Blue Springs in 2013, and the lease she produced was signed nine days before the filing deadline. A court then ordered that no vote cast for her in that April's primary be counted.
Kansas City Star, Feb. 19, 2015 · Star editorial, Mar. 23, 2015
The record, in order
What the file shows.
Mar. 29, 2013
The lease she later produced is signed, nine days before the filing deadline.
Apr. 2, 2013
Election records show she voted in Blue Springs.
Feb. 19, 2015
She withdraws from the Kansas City Council race. The Star reports the residency suit the same day.
Feb. 2015
A court orders that no vote cast for her in that April's primary be counted. Case 1516-CV02659.
Mar. 23, 2015
The Star's editorial board states the outcome plainly, in the quote below.
“Theresa Garza Ruiz’s name is on the ballot, but a judge disqualified her as a candidate because of residency questions, and any votes for her will not be counted.”
Why it belongs in this file: the same question, asked in 2015 and again now. The city’s own rules on who may run were enforced against her by a court, and that is a matter of record rather than argument.
Primary documents
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More from the record
File II · The Pattern
Sixteen Years, One Pattern →
Every documented stop from 2010 to today, the spine of the whole record.
The evidence locker
The Vault →
Every document behind every claim, the letters, the docket, the packets, the broadcast.
Case File No. 6713-26
The Dobbs Tire File →
Five years vacant. A 7–1 recommendation. A 5–3 vote that killed it, plus the letter that packed the room.
Annotated, page by page
The Termination Letter →
Her own boss put it in writing: the $199,000 salary, the hidden job hunt, the verdict on her character.
Still unanswered
Open Questions →
The questions Ward 4 voters keep asking, tracked until she answers them.
Spread the record
Share Toolkit →
Ready-to-post lines, the PDF of the letter, and print materials for your neighborhood.
Print it
One-Page Flyer →
The whole record on a single page, built for doorsteps.