Kansas Mayor, a Mexican Citizen, Illegally Voted in State Elections: DHS
The mayor entered the country on a green card, and then illegally claimed citizenship on voter registration forms, according to Homeland Security.

11/14/2025|Updated: 11/14/2025

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said on Nov. 13 that the recently reelected mayor of Coldwater, Kansas, illegally voted in several U.S. elections.

Jose “Joe” Ceballos-Armendariz, 54, a Mexican national, entered the country on a green card in 1990, claimed to be a citizen on voter registration forms, and voted in elections for which he was ineligible, the DHS said.
Officials from Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach’s office filed election fraud charges against him in Comanche County last week. He is charged with three counts of voting without being qualified and three counts of election perjury.
“In Kansas, it is against the law to vote if you are not a U.S. citizen,” Kobach said in a Nov. 5 statement. “We allege that Mr. Ceballos did it multiple times.”
The charges are “nonperson felonies,” which are crimes that do not involve harm to another person. If convicted, he could spend more than five years in prison and be fined up to $200,000. His first court appearance is scheduled for Dec. 3, according to Kobach.

Ceballos-Armendariz falsified information on his February 2025 naturalization application by denying having made prior claims of U.S. citizenship, the DHS said.

“This alien committed a felony by voting in American elections,” said Tricia McLaughlin, DHS assistant secretary for border and immigration policy. “If convicted, he will be placed in removal proceedings. President Trump and Secretary Noem gave states access to the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) program to ensure only Americans vote in American elections.”

McLaughlin said SAVE, a program states can use to check immigration databases and verify citizenship, is “a critical tool for state and local governments to safeguard the integrity of elections across the country.”

‘Our elections belong to American citizens, not foreign citizens,” she said.


“This is not the first time Ceballos-Armendariz broke our nation’s laws,” the DHS said, adding that he was convicted of battery in 1995.

Federal law prohibits noncitizens from voting in national elections. Penalties include fines, imprisonment, and deportation. Some localities permit noncitizen voting in local races.

Kansas law generally requires that candidates for elected city office be a qualified elector, or eligible to vote, and a resident of the city, according to the attorney general’s office.

Cities also have “home rule” power, which gives city officials the power to decide whether Ceballos is eligible to continue his role as mayor, Kobach’s office said.

“This situation is absolutely unacceptable and, sadly, no surprise given the years of lax voting security in the United States,” USCIS spokesman Matthew Tragesser said in a statement.
Coldwater is home to about 700 people, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Jill McLaughlin contributed to this report.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/...ws&test_user_group=b

good news for a Monday

Some hotwater for the Coldwater Mayor
Adious...

Coldwater has a population of 687... So I assume the town's lone part-time city clerk/librarian/dog catcher/fire chief/tire and lube tech/K-12 teacher just didn't have the time or resources to bother verifying the citizenship status of all the mayoral candidates.

I was told this doesn't happen.

I want to see ICE raiding all of these infiltraitors. Yeah I know how I spelled it.

quote:

Originally posted by swordsmn1:
Some hotwater for the Coldwater Mayor
Adious...

Oh, keep him in the country for the 5 years of a maximum sentence, the adios his ass

How the hell??? Crazy!

quote:

Coldwater has a population of 687...

SAAAA-LUTE!

quote:

Originally posted by RogueJSK:
Coldwater has a population of 687... So I assume the town's lone part-time city clerk/librarian/dog catcher/fire chief/tire and lube tech/K-12 teacher just didn't have the time or resources to bother verifying the citizenship status of all the mayoral candidates.

What is interesting is that the town is in Comanche County, a population of less than 1700 folks, and it is solid red to the core; 84% of the voters voted for Trump in 2024. Not the usual Democrat area that votes in an illegal.