Liberty MavenMore on Bob Barr’s Lawsuit to Keep Obama and McCain Off Texas Ballot
September 18th, 2008 12:31 pm | by Mike Miller | Published in Activism, Big Government, Bob Barr, Court Cases, Election, Liberty, Politics, ballot access, law, rule of law | 4 Responses
Over at All American Blogger, the actual election law at the heart of the Bob Barr’s lawsuit is dissected. And in fact it’s pointed out that perhaps being filed by the deadline is not the only way to get on the ballot. There may be another way. See bold text below:
(a) To be entitled to have the names of its nominees placed on the general election ballot, a political party required to make nominations by convention must file with the secretary of state, not later than the 75th day after the date of the precinct conventions held under this chapter, lists of precinct convention participants indicating that the number of participants equals at least one percent of the total number of votes received by all candidates for governor in the most recent gubernatorial general election. The lists must include each participant’s residence address and voter registration number.
(b) A political party is entitled to have the names of its nominees placed on the ballot, without qualifying under Subsection (a), in each subsequent general election following a general election in which the party had a nominee for a statewide office who received a number of votes equal to at least five percent of the total number of votes received by all candidates for that office.
Blogger Andrew Min corresponded with Bob Barr’s press team, and a disagreement ensued. The above notwithstanding, I can’t imagine Bob Barr winning the case anyway.
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September 18th, 2008 at 7:00 pm (#)
I am glad you gave a link to the website with the code “dissected” I believe you should edit your posting after you actually read the law. The page you reference makes the statement that Chapter 181 pertains to presidential elections. It does not. This is an invalid article and it is no wonder that the campaign got upset. Especially if you read the actual email this blogger posted. I would have been pissed because of the tone of the email itself, yet alone, the fact that it was not factual.
Please read the Texas Code yourself here:
http://tlo2.tlc.state.tx.us/statutes/el.toc.htm
From reading this, the section in question 181 is only concerned with state officials, not national or presidents. please read it for yourself and see if you get the same impressions.
It would seem strange that Title 11 specifically calls out the requirements for “president of the united states” where as the other chapters don’t.
Anyway, I think the site that you linked to and found your information from is agressively wrong. I would chose my sources better next time.
Bruce
September 19th, 2008 at 2:40 am (#)
I would point out that whether or not Bob Barr succeeds in having the names of the Republican and Democrat tickets from being listed on the ballot, the parties ARE going to be on the ballot. Since a vote for either party is a vote for the slate of Presidential electors nominated by that party (and presumably provided to state election officials well within the deadline) that is all that is necessary. Anyone who goes into the polls in November is going to know what a Republican vote or what a Democrat vote means, whether the names of the candidates are listed or not.
Nevertheless, I hope the point of this lawsuit is to point to the unfairness of the strict application of these statutes in other states to keep the Libertarian candidates off those ballots, and how these decisions frustrate the public interest in having all their choices given for voters to choose. If the Texas suit is settled in conjunction with an order putting Bob Barr’s name on the West Virginia ballot, it will be true victory for the democratic process and the American people.
September 19th, 2008 at 10:02 am (#)
What utter hypocrasy. The Demopublicans have omitted Libertarian candidates off the ballots for EXACTLY this reason dozens of times – there is no uproar, no second guessing, and no cries of foul.
Democratic Party Chairman Richie asserts the obvious – Of course it is a politically motivated action by Bob Barr, what else is this whole thing all about, what idiocy.
Libertarian ARE indeed champions of ballot access, but free and equal ballot access, the Libertarians wouldn’t have made this bar to ballot access in the first place, but it having been made by Republicrats already all Libertarians are demanding that they live by the very same ballot excluding laws they made w/o counsel from Libertarians.
September 19th, 2008 at 4:44 pm (#)
[...] Maven recently cited something interesting regarding the filing deadlines in Texas: A political party is entitled to have the names of its nominees placed on the ballot, without [...]