Comments on: More on Bob Barr’s Lawsuit to Keep Obama and McCain Off Texas Ballot

By: Barr’s Texas Shootout, Update: Barr May Not Have a Case. | LOUNGE DADDY: CHRONICLES

Fri, 19 Sep 2008 20:44:36 +0000

[...] 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 [...]

By: garyonthenet

garyonthenet — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 14:02:11 +0000

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.

By: wrdalton

wrdalton — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 06:40:42 +0000

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.

By: bawest

bawest — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 23:00:19 +0000

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