# El Monte City Clerk Compare records and positions simply between Gabriel Ramirez or Jerry Velasco for El Monte City Clerk at VoteOrElse.com. On the November 3, 2026 California general election ballot. This person is El Monte's elections official. They also keep the city's records, like agendas, minutes, contracts, and campaign disclosure filings. The term is four years, and the office is elected citywide. - Jurisdiction: City of El Monte - Election: November 3, 2026 California general election - Publisher: Vote or Else (https://voteorelse.com) — a free, nonpartisan ballot guide for California voters. No endorsements. - Canonical page: https://voteorelse.com/2026/el-monte-clerk - 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: August 31, 2026 - Source-objectivity score: 90 out of 100 (Very strong), across 7 cited sources. This grades the mix of sources, not the candidates. Rubric: https://voteorelse.com/about#methodology ## On the ballot - **Gabriel Ramirez** — Incumbent - **Jerry Velasco** A nonpartisan office: candidates do not run as Democrats or Republicans, and no party appears on the ballot. Incumbent City Clerk Gabriel Ramirez faces challenger Jerry Velasco for a second term. There's no June primary for city offices; whoever gets the most votes on November 3 wins outright. El Monte's City Clerk is the city's elections official and the custodian of its public records — agendas, minutes, contracts, and campaign-disclosure filings. It's a 4-year term, elected citywide rather than by district. The council briefly debated making the Clerk, along with the Mayor and Treasurer, an appointed rather than elected position in early 2026, then tabled the idea unanimously — so this election keeps deciding that question directly, at least for now. Beyond incumbency, little separates the two candidates in the public record: no independent news coverage of either was found. ## Gabriel Ramirez Gabriel Ramirez is the incumbent City Clerk, elected in 2022 and now seeking a second term; he signs the city's own 2026 Notice of Election in that capacity. State campaign-finance records show an earlier, unsuccessful run for City Council in 2020 before he won the Clerk's office. No independent news coverage of his tenure as Clerk was found. **Strengths:** A full term of incumbency in the office itself, plus an earlier council campaign showing some prior involvement in city politics. **Trade-offs:** No independent news coverage of his record as Clerk was found, and no campaign-finance report has been filed for his 2026 committee as of this retrieval. **Keep in mind:** As sitting Clerk, Ramirez's own office administers this election — a structural fact worth knowing, not a documented conflict; nothing in this research suggests impropriety. ## Jerry Velasco Jerry Velasco is challenging Ramirez for City Clerk. Velasco filed a campaign committee with the state that was terminated on January 21, 2026, months before they pulled nomination papers in July; no campaign-finance report was filed. No biographical information or independent news coverage of Velasco was found. **Strengths:** Not established by anything found in this research. **Trade-offs:** No platform, career background, or endorsements could be confirmed anywhere, and their campaign committee was closed months before they formally entered the race. **Keep in mind:** A terminated campaign committee before the filing period doesn't necessarily mean anything is wrong, since committees close for many ordinary reasons, but this research could not determine why. The city's own candidate record confirms their name and qualification. ## Sources 1. [City of El Monte — Notice of Election, November 3, 2026 General Municipal Election (one Mayor at-large, 2-yr term; Council Districts 2, 3, 6; City Clerk and City Treasurer at-large — all four 4-yr terms)](https://www.ci.el-monte.ca.us/DocumentCenter/View/7811/NOTICE-CALLING-FOR-ELECTION-NOVEMBER-2026) 2. [City of El Monte — Interested Candidate List, Status of Candidate Pulling & Filing Nomination Papers (current through the extended Aug. 12, 2026 filing deadline; all three Mayor filers reached 'Date Qualified')](https://www.ci.el-monte.ca.us/DocumentCenter/View/7854/Interested-Candidate-List---8-13-2026) 3. [City of El Monte — City Council (official roster: the Mayor plus six single-member district councilmembers, a 7-member body in all; links to each member's biography page)](https://www.ci.el-monte.ca.us/342/City-Council) 4. [CA Secretary of State — Cal-Access filer search, 'Ramirez El Monte' (shows 'Ramirez for El Monte City Clerk 2022' active — Gabriel Ramirez's incumbent committee, corroborating his 2022 win and signature on the 2026 Notice of Election as sitting City Clerk — and an earlier 'Ramirez for El Monte City Council 2020' committee, corroborating an unsuccessful 2020 council bid; no Form 460 filed for the 2026 cycle as of this retrieval)](https://cal-access.sos.ca.gov/Misc/filerSearch.aspx?SEARCH=Ramirez+El+Monte) 5. [CA Secretary of State — Cal-Access, 'Velasco for El Monte City Clerk 2026; Jerry' (recipient committee, terminated Jan. 21, 2026, months before he pulled nomination papers in July; no Form 460 filed)](https://cal-access.sos.ca.gov/Campaign/Committees/Detail.aspx?id=1480288) 6. [San Gabriel Valley Tribune (Southern California News Group) — El Monte City Council tables vote on making city clerk, city treasurer, mayor appointed roles (unanimous Feb. 25, 2026 vote to indefinitely table the restructuring; effort never reached the Nov. 2026 ballot)](https://www.sgvtribune.com/2026/02/26/el-monte-city-council-tables-vote-on-making-city-clerk-city-treasurer-appointed-roles-rotating-mayor/) 7. [The Mid Valley News — Council Advances Plan to Restructure Offices (names the Jan. 14, 2026 5-2 council vote to begin outreach on eliminating the elected Mayor/Clerk/Treasurer offices, with Ancona and Herrera voting no; superseded by the SGV Tribune's Feb. 25, 2026 tabling)](https://midvalleynews.com/council-advances-plan-to-restructure-offices/) ## The rest of the ballot El Monte City Clerk 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, "El Monte City Clerk — November 3, 2026 California general election," https://voteorelse.com/2026/el-monte-clerk (sources last retrieved August 31, 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.