Former Kansas mayor accused of voting illegally reaches deal to avoid jail time

Matthew Kelly, The Kansas City Star on Apr 20, 2026

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The former small-town Kansas mayor who made national headlines last year when he was charged with voting illegally as a noncitizen has reached a plea agreement that will keep him out of jail.

Joe Ceballos, 55, pleaded guilty to three counts of misdemeanor disorderly election conduct in Comanche County on Monday. He agreed to pay a $2,000 fine and serve a year of probation, court records show.

Ceballos, a green card holder, was born in Mexico and came to the U.S. as a child. He was charged with six voting-related felonies last November — the day after capturing 83% of the vote to handily win a second term as mayor of Coldwater, a town of fewer than 700 people just north of the Oklahoma border.

Ceballos resigned as mayor in December and has maintained that he mistakenly voted because he believed he was authorized to do so as a legal permanent resident.

“Every case is considered individually and in Mr. Ceballos’ case, a plea is in the public’s best interest,” Attorney General Kris Kobach said in a statement on Monday, adding that his office has “no role in Mr. Ceballos’ citizenship, residence, or deportation proceedings.”

The plea deal comes after an outpouring of support for Ceballo from the largely conservative town, which rallied around the former mayor as one of its own.

“It’s not just about politics sometimes. It’s not about blanket policies regarding immigration,” said Jess Hoeme, an attorney for Ceballos, in a Monday interview.

“I’m glad to see that the (Attorney General’s Office) finally looked at the person and the case and realized that justice would not be served by any kind of disposition that would require or enable his removal from the United States,” he said.

Ceballos applied for U.S. citizenship in February 2025. A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said in a press release late last year that Ceballos would be “placed in removal proceedings” and face deportation to Mexico if convicted of the felony charges that were originally brought against him.

Hoeme said he’s hopeful that the reduced charges in the plea deal will allow Ceballos to preserve the life that he and his family have built in Coldwater.

“That is absolutely our hope,” Hoeme said. “But you can’t say with any degree of certainty what immigration (authorities are) going to do anymore.”

A DHS spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Joe Ceballos’ history in Coldwater

Despite President Trump’s claims of widespread voter fraud in 2020, fueling doubts about election security, documented cases of noncitizen voting in U.S. elections are vanishingly rare.

Ceballos’ case presented the highest-profile voter fraud prosecution in Kansas in recent memory for Kobach, a longtime election integrity skeptic.

“This case demonstrates the very real personal and community consequences of having no citizenship verification at the time of registration or indeed at any point in the voting process,” Kobach said in his statement.

According to Kobach’s office, Ceballos has been on the Kansas voter rolls since at least 2006. The charges brought against him were connected to ballots he cast in 2022, 2023 and 2024.

In his first interview after the arrest, Ceballos told the Kansas Leadership Center Journal that he “always voted for all the Republicans.”

Ceballos began his public service working in Coldwater’s public utilities department. He served two four-year terms on the City Council before first being elected mayor in 2021.

Mayor Alvarez, Coldwater’s new mayor, said in a short phone interview that the city can’t comment on Ceballos’ legal proceedings.

Hoeme, Ceballos’ attorney, said the prevailing mood in the courtroom on Monday morning was one of relief.

“(Ceballos) just absolutely loves that community, and they have circled around him and done anything and everything that they can to help, and that, I think, is part of the reason that Attorney General Kobach started to pay attention,” Hoeme said.

“If I had a nickel for every time I heard someone from Coldwater say they wish that politicians would have a lick of common sense, this would have been an easier case for me,” he added.