In the 1996 special "non-partisan" congressional Texas
elections, a candidate could choose a partisan label.
It could even be the name of a non-qualified party.
For instance, one candidate used the label "Socialist
Workers" and that was printed on the ballot, even
though the Socialist Workers Party was not on the
ballot generally in Texas in 1996 (it last qualified
in Texas in 1978). In regularly-scheduled elections,
no party labels can be printed if the party isn't
qualified. A Socialist Workers Party candidate for
congress who uses the independent procedure in a
regularly-scheduled election can't have "Socialist
Workers" next to his or her name, just "independent".
So special elections in Texas are an opportunity for
unqualified parties to put their names on the ballot.
I don't think the state restricts label in any way, so
it would be irrelevant that the same individual had
filed for office early this year with a different
party. Texas doesn't have registration by party, so
in a special election, a candidate is the sole
determinant of what label fits; there is no public
record to contradict the candidate's choice.
--- "Grant.Rostig@Grant4Congress.com"
<grant.yahoo@Grant4Congress.com> wrote:
In prior congressional special elections in TX, did
the candidates have
party affiliation shown on the ballot?
If yes, then where they required to maintain the
party affiliation that
they had in the primary or LP party nominating
conventions? For
example, could they switch parties, say from
Libertarian to Republican?
Grant4Congress.com
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [LPTexas List] Re: Impact of Texas
Redistricting Order
From: Jon Roland <jon.roland@constitution.org>
Date: Fri, August 04, 2006 11:47 pm
To: ban@richardwinger.com
Cc: election-law@majordomo.lls.edu, Vince
Leibowitz
<Vince_Leibowitz@cox.net>, "Smith, Brad"
<BSmith@law.capital.edu>,
LPTexas <LPTexas-L@lptexas.org>,
lptx-candidates@yahoogroups.com
Thanks. This hopefully answers one of the
questions I have for the Sec.
of State Election Division.
ban@richardwinger.com wrote:
In past special congressional elections in Texas,
neither a petition nor a filing fee has been
needed.
Texas filing fees are only for candidates running
in a
partisan primary. Therefore, fees don't exist in
special elections, since special elections in
Texas
are non-partisan.
In 1961, because Texas posed no fee and no
petition to
run in a special election, the number of
candidates
for US Senate (to replace Lyndon Johnson, who had
to
resign since he was the new vice-president) was
73 or
so.
In the 1996 non-partisan congressional elections
in
the districts newly redrawn in Texas, there were
also
lots of candidates in the first round, because of
the
absense of any ballot barriers. The 25th
district had
eleven candidates. The 30th had eight. The
others
had fewer because incumbents were running.
So I assume the same rules still apply, and
neither a
fee nor a petition is needed for these 5
districts.
--
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