By:Morgan Chilson
Kansas Reflector
TOPEKA — A former Kansas mayor and immigrant charged with voting illegally pleaded guilty to lesser charges Monday, a move expected to allow him to remain in the United States.
Former Coldwater Mayor Joe Ceballos reached a plea agreement with the Kansas Attorney General’s Office to drop the severity of charges related to voting illegally from six felony counts to three counts of disorderly election conduct, each a class B nonperson misdemeanor, court documents said.
Ceballos is a legal permanent resident of the United States and a citizen of Mexico. During the interview process in 2025 to become an American citizen, Ceballos said he had voted in the past, which triggered his arrest.
The plea agreement, finalized in Comanche County District Court, means deportation proceedings aren’t likely, although in immigration, that’s never off the table, said Ceballos’ attorney, Jess Hoeme.
“Normally a felony or a crime of moral turpitude punishable by up to a year in jail would be the kinds of dispositions in a case that would prompt removal proceedings,” he said. “We were able to completely avoid that.”
Ceballos won’t serve jail time and will pay a fine of $2,000, Hoeme said. He was given a six-month underlying sentence on each count, which was suspended, according to the plea agreement.
Hoeme said his client is happy with the outcome.
“Imagine you’ve been in the country since you’re 4, and you’ve been in Coldwater since you were 14, and now this?” Hoeme said. “He’s incredibly relieved.”
Ceballos’ arrest shocked his community, where he had just been elected mayor for his second term.
Since then, the Coldwater community has turned out to support Ceballos, and the courtroom Monday morning was packed, Hoeme said.
Ceballos indicated he is going to continue pursuing U.S. citizenship, and Hoeme said he is hopeful the election charges won’t interfere with that process.
Hoeme credited Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach for his willingness to consider the situation, which initially seemed as if it could end with Ceballos’ deportation.
“The attorney general finally looked at the man instead of the politics of the situation and did the right thing,” Hoeme said.
Kobach and Secretary of State Scott Schwab announced Ceballos’ arrest in November, saying there would be hundreds more as the state began using the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements, or SAVE, database. Kobach has announced one more case of alleged voter fraud since then.
Kansas Reflector questions to Kobach’s communications staff about whether other arrests have been made regarding voting illegally weren’t answered.
The case against Ceballos was not compiled using the database. Hoeme said it was questions asked during the citizenship interview process that found Ceballos had voted.
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