AUSTIN— Longtime Travis County prosecutor Gary Cobb won a key ruling on Friday as he looks to become the county's next district attorney.
Cobb's challengers have questioned his eligibility, specifically the signatures he gathered that made his bid for District Attorney official. Judge Stephen Yelenosky denied a request for a temporary injunction Friday.
Rival Democrat Rick Reed unsuccessfully argued that signatures on Cobb's petition to run should be tossed out because of technical errors—that would have made Cobb ineligible to run for District Attorney.
"The statute clearly states that in order for the signature to be treated as valid, it must include the date of signing," said Reed. "Our examination of those petitions persuaded us they were not actually valid because they didn't contain at least 500 valid signatures."
Reed also questions if Cobb has signatures from at least 500 registered Travis County voters. Candidates are allowed to file for office by either collecting signatures from registered voters or paying a $1250 fee.
Cobb was the only candidate for District Attorney to submit a petition. Reed and Margaret Moore paid the filing fee.
"The easiest thing to do is to pay the filing fee," Cobb said. "Anybody can afford that filing fee in order to get on the ballot. What's more difficult is to get enough citizens to agree that you should be on the ballot."
Cobb's own political party wants at least 500 signatures verified in the event he wins the primary.
"We believe, by filing this petition, we are putting it on a path to resolve this matter to protect the office for the Democratic Party," Travis County Democratic Party Chair Vincent Harding said.
Judge Yelenosky said he was not going to invalidate signatures that did not have a date on them in order to protect--not the candidate, but the voters.
"We are on the ballot. We are happy. There will be a hearing on the merits in the first week of February, " said Buck Wood, Gary Cobb's Attorney.
Both sides will be back in court Feb. 4 for a final hearing. Regardless of the outcome, Cobb’s name will remain on primary ballots. The deadline to modify ballots is already passed.