A woman is suing the city of Edcouch after she alleged city officials blocked her from the Nov. 3 general election ballot over unpaid debt.

Melody Saldana filed the lawsuit in Hidalgo County, and a temporary restraining order was signed to get her name placed on the ballot.

The lawsuit names the city of Edcouch, Virginio Gonzalez Jr., the city's elections department, Edcouch Elections Clerk Victor Nieves, Edcouch City Manager Marisela Aguilar and the Edcouch city attorney as the defendants.

Saldana says she tried to file her candidate application on July 18, the day the statutory filing period opened, but city officials told her the election had not been approved.

Saldana was not permitted to submit her application until Aug. 17, the final day of the filing period.

"On Aug. 18, the city of Edcouch Elections Department informed [Saldana] that she had been determined to be ineligible for placement on the ballot. The stated basis for the city's determination was allegedly 'outstanding indebtedness to the City of Edcouch,'" the lawsuit states. "Defendants have not identified with sufficient specificity the alleged tickets, citation numbers, amounts allegedly owed, dates of the alleged indebtedness, or the particular municipal charter provision, ordinance, or other substantive law that purportedly renders Plaintiff ineligible."

The alleged debt traces back to tickets issued in approximately 2018 and filed under Saldana's former married name, Melody Saldana Galvan.

When Saldana searched city records for outstanding tickets, she searched under "Melody Saldana" and "Melody Galvan." Neither search returned any results.

The city had kept those older ticket records in paper form. According to the lawsuit, city officials manually entered the 2018 tickets into the city's electronic records system on Aug. 17, the same day Saldana filed her application.

"[Saldana] therefore had no reasonable notice from the city's available electronic records that the alleged 2018 tickets remained outstanding. The city's records concerning the alleged 2018 tickets were not originally maintained in the city's current electronic recordkeeping system. Rather, the tickets existed in paper records," the lawsuit states.

On Aug. 19, Saldana paid the amounts the city identified as outstanding. She says she has documentation of that payment.

Despite the payment, the city has refused to place her name on the ballot.

The lawsuit argues the city failed to follow deadlines set by the Texas Secretary of State and unlawfully prevented Saldana from filing earlier in the statutory period.

A court order filed in the case found that the city informed Saldana that the election had not been approved and that the city failed to notify Saldana of the candidate filing deadline by the required date of July 18.

Saldana is asking the court to order her name placed on the Nov. 3, 2026 ballot and to block the city from treating her as ineligible based on the disputed debt.

A hearing on the lawsuit is set for Thursday.

Early voting for the election is set to begin on Oct. 19.