[EL] I was hoping to get a thread going with my info about idiotic Texas deadlines

[Richard Winger]

Texas legislature hasn't altered the number of signatures for any minor party or independent candidates since 1967.  The only change since then was moving the deadline (again, without much thought; most such Texas deadlines move automatically when the primary date changes).  Also in 1975 the legislature foolishly repealed any procedures for independent presidential candidates to get on the ballot, which the US Supreme Court said in 1976 was "inexplicable", given that the US Supreme Court had said in Storer v Brown in 1974 that states must have procedures for both minor/new parties and independent candidates.

So when the Texas legislature restored independent presidential petition procedures in 1977, they "got even" by making the independent presidential petition be more signatures than the procedures for other statewide independent candidates.

Richard Winger

415-922-9779

PO Box 470296, San Francisco Ca 94147

--- On Fri, 12/16/11, Vince Leibowitz <vince.leibowitz at gmail.com> wrote:

From: Vince Leibowitz <vince.leibowitz at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [EL] I was hoping to get a thread going with my info about idiotic Texas deadlines
To: "Larry Levine" <larrylevine at earthlink.net>
Cc: "<richardwinger at yahoo.com>" <richardwinger at yahoo.com>, "<law-election at uci.edu>" <law-election at uci.edu>
Date: Friday, December 16, 2011, 5:22 PM

It was done by the Legislature. I can't remember when they upped the requirements, but I want to say it was in the last ten years. 

Vince LeibowitzPrincipal ConsultantThe Dawn Groupvince.leibowitz at gmail.comvince@dgtexas.comDGTexas.com512.705.7001 (m)512.861.2370 (f)512.318.2432 (o)
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On Dec 16, 2011, at 6:27 PM, "Larry Levine" <larrylevine at earthlink.net> wrote:

Does “let’s protect our governor” sound like it might be a reason? Was this done legislatively or by executive fiat?Larry  From: law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu [mailto:law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu] On Behalf Of Richard Winger
Sent: Friday, December 16, 2011 4:23 PM
To: law-election at uci.edu
Subject: [EL] I was hoping to get a thread going with my info about idiotic Texas deadlines  When I sent a link to my article about the ludicrous Texas petition deadlines to this list, I was hoping to stimulate others to comment.

Just to reiterate, Texas now requires an independent presidential candidate to submit a petition on May 14, but an independent candidate for any other office is not due until July 5.  Furthermore, the independent presidential petition needs about 40% more signatures than the independent petition for any other statewide office.

To my mind, there is no conceivable argument for why Texas should require independent presidential candidate petitions almost two months before independent petitions for other office, especially given Anderson v Celebrezze saying that states must go easier for independent presidential candidates than for candidates for other office.  Does anyone disagree with me?

The mainstream media, even in Texas, seems utterly oblivious to this, even though there is so much media attention this year to the idea of independent and new political party presidential candidates.  I am disappointed that no one seems to want to talk about this.

Richard Winger
415-922-9779
PO Box 470296, San Francisco Ca 94147  _______________________________________________
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