# El Monte City Treasurer

Compare records and positions simply between Maria Santay, Maryann G. Barrios, or Xiaohu Meng for El Monte City Treasurer at VoteOrElse.com. On the November 3, 2026 California general election ballot. This person oversees the city's cash and investments and reports on El Monte's financial position. 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-treasurer
- 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: 88 out of 100 (Strong), across 7 cited sources. This grades the mix of sources, not the candidates. Rubric: https://voteorelse.com/about#methodology

## On the ballot

- **Maria Santay**
- **Maryann G. Barrios**
- **Xiaohu Meng**

A nonpartisan office: candidates do not run as Democrats or Republicans, and no party appears on the ballot.

Three candidates — Xiaohu Meng, Maryann G. Barrios, and Maria Santay — are running for City Treasurer. A fourth filer, Cuitlahuac Dominguez, pulled nomination papers but never filed them, so he isn't on the ballot. There's no June primary for city offices; whoever gets the most votes on November 3 wins outright.

El Monte's City Treasurer oversees the city's cash and investments and reports on its financial position. It's a 4-year term, elected citywide.

No sitting incumbent was identified among the three qualified candidates — the city's own council and staff pages don't name a current Treasurer — and the council briefly debated making the office appointed rather than elected in early 2026 before tabling the idea unanimously. All three candidates are thinly documented: only Meng has a confirmed campaign history (an unsuccessful 2024 Council run), and no independent news coverage of any of the three was found.

## Xiaohu Meng

Xiaohu Meng ran unsuccessfully for El Monte City Council in 2024 before this Treasurer bid; state campaign-finance records show that 2024 committee terminated on election day and an active 2026 Treasurer committee with no report filed yet. No biographical narrative or independent news coverage was found beyond that campaign-finance history.

**Strengths:** A prior citywide campaign (2024 Council) shows some standing local political involvement, even without a win.

**Trade-offs:** No platform, career background, or endorsements for this Treasurer race were found anywhere.

**Keep in mind:** The 2024 council committee's termination date fell on the November 2024 election date — consistent with, but not confirmation of, that race not going Meng's way.

## Maryann G. Barrios

Maryann G. Barrios is one of three candidates for City Treasurer. No campaign-finance committee, biographical information, or independent news coverage was found for them — a Cal-Access filer search for their name returns only an unrelated committee from 2011 for a different person who shares their surname.

**Strengths:** Not established by anything found in this research.

**Trade-offs:** No platform, career background, or endorsements could be confirmed anywhere.

**Keep in mind:** This is a documented sourcing gap, not a sign anything is being withheld — a real, multi-source search effort came up empty for Barrios specifically. Their name and qualification are independently confirmed by the city's own candidate record.

## Maria Santay

Maria Santay is one of three candidates for City Treasurer. No campaign-finance committee, biographical information, or independent news coverage was found for them — a Cal-Access filer search for their name returns no results at all.

**Strengths:** Not established by anything found in this research.

**Trade-offs:** No platform, career background, or endorsements could be confirmed anywhere.

**Keep in mind:** This is a documented sourcing gap, not a sign anything is being withheld — a real, multi-source search effort came up empty for Santay specifically. Their name and qualification are independently confirmed by the city's own candidate record.

## 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, 'Xiaohu Meng' (shows 'Meng for El Monte City Treasurer 2026; Xiaohu' active, and 'Meng City Council 2024; Xiaohu' terminated Nov. 8, 2024 — election day that cycle — corroborating an unsuccessful 2024 El Monte City Council run before this Treasurer bid; no Form 460 filed for the 2026 committee as of this retrieval)](https://cal-access.sos.ca.gov/Misc/filerSearch.aspx?SEARCH=Xiaohu+Meng)
5. [CA Secretary of State — Cal-Access filer search, 'Barrios El Monte' (returns only an unrelated, decade-old, terminated 'Barrios for El Monte Mayor 2011, Art' committee — a different person from City Treasurer candidate Maryann G. Barrios; no committee found for her)](https://cal-access.sos.ca.gov/Misc/filerSearch.aspx?SEARCH=Barrios+El+Monte)
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 Treasurer 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 Treasurer — November 3, 2026 California general election," https://voteorelse.com/2026/el-monte-treasurer (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.
