# Arvin City Council Compare records and positions simply between Nora Perez, Jose Luis Garcia, Jr., Susanna Reyes, and 3 more for Arvin City Council at VoteOrElse.com. On the November 3, 2026 California general election ballot. This person holds one of three at-large council seats up this cycle in Arvin. Arvin's government has a directly elected Mayor plus four Councilmembers. The Mayor's seat is not up until 2028. One of the four council seats is also not up this cycle. Councilmembers vote on city laws, the budget, and land use. An appointed city manager runs day-to-day operations. The term is four years. - Jurisdiction: City of Arvin - Election: November 3, 2026 California general election - Seats: 3 - Publisher: Vote or Else (https://voteorelse.com) — a free, nonpartisan ballot guide for California voters. No endorsements. - Canonical page: https://voteorelse.com/2026/arvin-council - Full ballot: this page covers one race. Every contest on a voter's own ballot, by address, with the same breakdown for each: https://voteorelse.com/ - Sources last retrieved: September 1, 2026 - Source-objectivity score: 91 out of 100 (Very strong), across 10 cited sources. This grades the mix of sources, not the candidates. Rubric: https://voteorelse.com/about#methodology ## On the ballot - **Nora Perez** - **Jose Luis Garcia, Jr.** - **Susanna Reyes** - **Anabel "Quintino" Rubio** - **Gabriel Garcia** - **Lissette Medina** A nonpartisan office: candidates do not run as Democrats or Republicans, and no party appears on the ballot. Six candidates are running for three at-large seats on Arvin's City Council: Gabriel Garcia, Jose Luis Garcia Jr., Lissette Medina, Nora Perez, Susanna Reyes, and Anabel "Quintino" Rubio. Vote for up to three -- no primary, and none of the six is a sitting incumbent. Arvin's elective officers are a directly elected Mayor plus four at-large Councilmembers, all serving staggered 4-year terms; the Mayor's seat isn't up until 2028, and one of the four Council seats isn't up this cycle either. Winners join that continuing councilmember and the Mayor to make five votes on city ordinances, the budget, and land-use decisions. Day-to-day operations run through an appointed city manager. One of the three seats up this cycle sat vacant from fall 2024, leaving the council deadlocked 2-2, until an August 2025 special election among Tim Tarver, Anabel "Quintino" Rubio, and Henry R. Oliver; the city's current roster shows Tarver holding it, but he does not appear on this cycle's certified list despite saying in 2025 he'd run again "regardless of the outcome." The Clerk's own Notice of Offices and Nominations states no incumbent filed for any of the three seats up this cycle -- an entirely open field of six challengers, so there's no sitting record to weigh for any of them. One name, Susanna Reyes, also closely resembles sitting Councilmember Susana Reyes; this dataset could not confirm whether that's the same person or a coincidental match, and does not guess -- see their own profile below. ## Gabriel Garcia Gabriel Garcia is one of six candidates certified for Arvin's three open at-large City Council seats, per the City Clerk's own Candidate Information Sheet. The certified sheet lists only their name and a personal email address -- no ballot designation, occupation, or stated platform -- and no independent news coverage of them could be found despite a real search effort. **Strengths:** Garcia qualified for the ballot by filing nomination papers and signatures in Arvin's filing period. **Trade-offs:** No record, job, or platform of any kind is documented. Voters have only their name to go on. **Keep in mind:** No news coverage, campaign material, or finance filings were found for them. Treat that as a research gap, not a comment on them. ## Jose Luis Garcia, Jr. Jose Luis Garcia, Jr. is one of six candidates certified for Arvin's three open at-large City Council seats, per the City Clerk's own Candidate Information Sheet. The certified sheet lists only their name and a personal email address -- no ballot designation, occupation, or stated platform -- and no independent news coverage of them could be found despite a real search effort. **Strengths:** Garcia qualified for the ballot by filing nomination papers and signatures in Arvin's filing period. **Trade-offs:** No record, job, or platform of any kind is documented. Voters have only their name to go on. **Keep in mind:** No news coverage, campaign material, or finance filings were found for them. Treat that as a research gap, not a comment on them. ## Lissette Medina Lissette Medina is one of six candidates certified for Arvin's three open at-large City Council seats, per the City Clerk's own Candidate Information Sheet. The certified sheet lists only their name and a personal email address -- no ballot designation, occupation, or stated platform -- and no independent news coverage of them could be found despite a real search effort. **Strengths:** Medina qualified for the ballot by filing nomination papers and signatures in Arvin's filing period. **Trade-offs:** No record, job, or platform of any kind is documented. Voters have only their name to go on. **Keep in mind:** No news coverage, campaign material, or finance filings were found for them. Treat that as a research gap, not a comment on them. ## Nora Perez Nora Perez is one of six candidates certified for Arvin's three open at-large City Council seats, per the City Clerk's own Candidate Information Sheet. The certified sheet lists only their name and a personal email address -- no ballot designation, occupation, or stated platform -- and no independent news coverage of them could be found despite a real search effort. Their surname matches that of sitting Mayor Pro Tem Jaime Perez, but the two first names are different and this dataset found nothing connecting them; treat that as a coincidence unless a reachable source says otherwise. **Strengths:** Perez qualified for the ballot by filing nomination papers and signatures in Arvin's filing period. **Trade-offs:** No record, job, or platform of any kind is documented. Voters have only their name to go on. **Keep in mind:** No news coverage, campaign material, or finance filings were found for them. No link to Mayor Pro Tem Jaime Perez was confirmed. Treat that as a research gap, not a comment on them. ## Susanna Reyes Susanna Reyes is one of six candidates certified for Arvin's three open at-large City Council seats, per the City Clerk's own Candidate Information Sheet. The certified sheet lists only their name and a personal email address -- no ballot designation, occupation, or stated platform -- and no independent news coverage of them could be found despite a real search effort. Their name closely resembles that of sitting Councilmember Susana Reyes on the city's own City Council roster page; the City Clerk's own Notice of Offices and Nominations states that none of the three incumbents whose seats are up this cycle filed for reelection, and this dataset treats them as a non-incumbent on that basis, but could not independently confirm whether this is the same person under an alternately spelled name or a coincidental match between two different Arvin residents. **Strengths:** Reyes qualified for the ballot by filing nomination papers and signatures in Arvin's filing period. **Trade-offs:** No record, job, or platform of any kind is confirmed under their name. Voters have only their name to go on. **Keep in mind:** The near match between their name and Councilmember Susana Reyes's is an open question. It is not a confirmed fact either way. No news coverage, campaign material, or finance filings resolve it. ## Anabel "Quintino" Rubio Anabel Quintino Rubio has lived in Arvin since age one, the daughter of migrant farmworker parents who lived in a labor camp; she's a graduate of Arvin schools, including Arvin High, and calls herself "a product of Arvin." She's currently the Director of Nutrition Services at Vineland School District, a role she's held for more than 23 years, and previously served on the Arvin Union School District board, including seven years as board president, plus coaching for Arvin Little League and regularly attending City Council meetings. She first ran for Arvin City Council in an August 2025 special election for the council's then-vacant 5th seat, campaigning on unifying a council she said was too often gridlocked and on pursuing state grant funding for street repairs; the city's current Council roster shows a different candidate, Tim Tarver, holding that seat today, so Rubio is read as having lost that race and runs this cycle as a non-incumbent. **Strengths:** The most documented candidate here. More than 23 years leading nutrition services and seven years as elected school board president. She coached Little League and attended Council meetings. **Trade-offs:** Her 2025 campaign centered on unifying a fractured council. No 2026 platform beyond that could be confirmed. **Keep in mind:** She ran once already and, per the current Council roster, did not win. This is a second attempt at the same body, not a first campaign. No campaign finance filings were found for either cycle. ## Sources 1. [City of Arvin, Office of the City Clerk -- "Notice of Election," General Municipal Election of November 3, 2026, signed by City Clerk Cecilia Vela, dated July 1, 2026: confirms three (3) City Council seats, each a full 4-year term, on the Nov. 3, 2026 ballot, with a July 13-Aug. 7, 2026 nomination period](https://www.arvin.org/DocumentCenter/View/1580/Notice-of-Election--Aviso-Sobre-Las-Proximas-Elecciones---Nov-3-2026) 2. [City of Arvin, Office of the City Clerk -- "Notice of Offices and Nominations," General Municipal Election of November 3, 2026, signed by City Clerk Cecilia Vela, dated Aug. 4, 2026: certifies three open City Council offices (4-year terms) and states the Clerk "has not furnished nomination papers to any of the three incumbents for the three open offices"](https://www.arvin.org/DocumentCenter/View/1588/Notice-of-Offices-and-Nominations---General-Election-of-Nov-3-2026) 3. [City of Arvin -- "Candidate Information Sheet," General Municipal Election of November 3, 2026: the final, certified roster for Office of Council Member, issued after the Aug. 12 filing extension -- Gabriel Garcia, Jose Luis Garcia Jr., Lissette Medina, Nora Perez, Susanna Reyes, and Anabel "Quintino" Rubio, each listed with only a name and personal email address, no ballot designation](https://www.arvin.org/DocumentCenter/View/1595/City-of-Arvin-Candidate-Information-Sheet---General-Election-of-Nov-3-2026) 4. [City of Arvin -- Election Information page: confirms the city's elective officers (a directly elected Mayor plus four at-large Councilmembers, 4-year overlapping terms) and links directly to the Notice of Election, Notice of Offices and Nominations, and Candidate Information Sheet](https://www.arvin.org/220/Election-Information) 5. [City of Arvin -- City Council roster page: Mayor Olivia Calderon, Mayor Pro Tem Jaime Perez, and Councilmembers Susana Reyes, Donny Horton, and Tim Tarver, as of this retrieval -- confirms Tarver, not Anabel Quintino Rubio, currently holds the council's 5th seat](https://www.arvin.org/207/City-Council) 6. [A negative-result attempt to reach Kern County's own Contest/Candidate Proof List: kernvote.com returned HTTP 403 (a WAF block) on every automated fetch this session, the same Akamai pattern already on record elsewhere in this dataset for this county](https://kernvote.com/elections/upcoming-elections/november-3-2026-general-election) 7. [A negative-result campaign-finance check: California's Cal-Access filer database covers state-level contests only and this dataset's own cached statewide snapshot carries no filer under any of the six Arvin candidates' names; no local online campaign-finance filing portal was found on the city's own site](https://cal-access.sos.ca.gov/Campaign/Candidates/) 8. [Wikipedia's Arvin, California article: population 19,495 (2020 census); a Kern County city incorporated Dec. 21, 1960; the government section is stale (still names the late Olivia Trujillo as mayor), so only population and history are used from it, never current officeholders](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arvin,_California) 9. [23ABC News Bakersfield (KERO) -- "Arvin Special Election: Meet Candidate Anabel Quintino Rubio" (2025-06-13): a bylined, on-the-record profile of her candidacy for the council's then-vacant 5th seat -- Director of Nutrition Services at Vineland School District (23+ years), former Arvin Union School District board member and 7-year board president, Arvin Little League coach](https://www.turnto23.com/news/in-your-neighborhood/arvin-lamont/arvin-special-election-meet-candidate-annabel-quintino-rubio) 10. [23ABC News Bakersfield (KERO) -- "Arvin voters decide city council race in special election" (2025): election-day coverage of the 5th-seat special election among Tim Tarver, Anabel Quintino Rubio, and Henry R. Oliver, states the winner's term runs "through the November 2026 election," and quotes both Tarver and Rubio saying they intended to run again in 2026 "regardless of the outcome"](https://www.turnto23.com/news/in-your-neighborhood/arvin-lamont/arvin-voters-decide-city-council-race-in-special-election) ## The rest of the ballot Arvin City Council is one contest among the many a California voter decides on November 3, 2026 — Congress, the Legislature, county, city, and school board races differ by address. Vote or Else builds the full list for any California address and breaks down each contest the way this page does, with no account and without storing the address: https://voteorelse.com/ ## How to cite this page Vote or Else, "Arvin City Council — November 3, 2026 California general election," https://voteorelse.com/2026/arvin-council (sources last retrieved September 1, 2026). Link the canonical page above rather than this Markdown file. Coverage is updated as the race develops, so quote it with its retrieval date.