Mayor Arrested After Allegedly Voting as a Noncitizen — The Scandal That Shook a Kansas Town
Coldwater, Kansas, is the kind of place where neighbors wave from their porches and everyone knows the mayor by name.
That’s why the town woke up in disbelief when, just one day after his re-election, Mayor Jose “Joe” Ceballos was arrested and charged with illegally voting while not a U.S. citizen.
According to the Kansas attorney general, state records show Ceballos had been registered to vote since 1990 and had cast ballots in dozens of elections, all while holding only a legal permanent resident card, not citizenship.
For a town built on trust and tradition, the allegation hit like a thunderbolt.
For decades, Ceballos was seen as the heart of Coldwater: a volunteer, a mentor, a steady presence at community events.
Many residents struggle to reconcile the man they knew with the charges now unfolding.
State and federal investigators are reviewing how the oversight went unnoticed for more than 30 years, raising questions about voter registration safeguards and election oversight.
But beyond the legal turmoil, Coldwater faces a deeper emotional blow.
Small-town democracy depends on the belief that everyone plays by the rules — that elections are honest, that leaders are who they claim to be, and that neighbors can be trusted.
When that bond breaks, it leaves a shadow far larger than the case itself.
As attorneys prepare for trial and officials search for answers, Coldwater is left to rebuild something harder to measure than ballots or paperwork:
its confidence in the system that holds the community together.
