How the Parties Will Short-Sheet the System in Texas
August 28th, 2008
By JAZZ SHAW, Assistant Editor
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Take a look at this page from the state of Texas and you will note something odd. (In case you don’t care to click through the jump, I’ll put in a small screen capture for you.)
This is the list of valid candidates on the ballot in Texas for this fall. (Click for full size image.) The odd thing you may note is that there is only one name present in the race for president. That name is Bob Barr’s.
“Well,” you might say, “not to worry. It’s only August.” Good point! It is only August. In fact, it’s August 28, 2008 and there are still 68 days until the election. Very astute of you to notice. But now, let’s take a brief look at a rather unambiguous piece of Texas election law, shall we? (Cross check at Election Ballot News.)
Section 192.031 of the Texas election code says that political parties must certify their presidential and vice-presidential candidates for the November ballot no later than 70 days before the general election. It says, “A political party is entitled to have the names of its nominees for president and vice-president placed on the ballot if before 5 p.m. of the 70th day before presidential election day, the party’s state chair signs and delivers to the secretary of state a written certification of the name’s of the party’s nominees for president and vice-president.
How much would you like to bet that Obama and McCain will still miraculously find a way to be on the ballot in Texas? Oh.. wait! That didn’t take very long, did it?
Since we sent out our release yesterday regarding Bob [Barr] being the only presidential candidate certified in Texas, a spokeswoman for the Texas Secretary of State’s office stated that, “Upon further checking, both parties filed before the deadline. We expect their amended filings after both parties finish their nominating process at the conventions.“
The people doing the heavy lifting on this investigation have yet to locate any exception in Texas election law allowing for substitutions of candidate names or amendments after the filing deadline. The law is short, clear and concise. Such exceptions are allowed in West Virginia, Massachusetts, Maine and Pennsylvania. (These are all states where the Republican Party has filed in court to try to get Barr off the ballot.)
So, I’m sure you’re wondering if this is just Jazz Shaw pushing to try to keep McCain and Obama off the ballot in Texas in some hopeless attempt to help Bob Barr’s chances. Actually, it’s exactly the opposite. Obviously you want to have the candidates’ names on the ballot. But this is an excellent example of how election law across the states has been increasingly crafted by the two major parties to make it as difficult as possible to get a third party candidate on the ballot, while such laws are uniformly ignored if the Democrats or Republicans violate them. (For the record, George W. Bush missed the filing deadline in Florida in 2004 which, at that time, also had no exceptions for the filing deadline, but was put on the ballot anyway.)
Third party candidates, however, are expected to not only meet every date, dot every “i” and cross every “t” but also submit two jazillion signatures, each signed in virgin’s blood (certified in writing as being pure by the Pope) along with sixteen bajillion dollars and the shin bone of a unicorn. We discussed this today with Andrew Davis of the Barr campaign during the second half of our radio show, should you care to listen to a replay. All of these difficulties don’t even come close to the challenges you face in trying to get in on the fall presidential debates. Speaking of which, here’s a trivia question for you… and don’t think about this for too long or blood will drip out of your eyes. What jobs did the two people in charge of the private company in charge of organizing the presidential debates hold prior to their current positions?
If you guessed “head of the DNC and RNC respectively” give yourself a cookie. Oh, yes… I’m sure they are heavily invested in getting the voices of third party candidates heard.
If you want more choices, the system needs to be changed from the ground level on up. Otherwise you’re going to get the exact same choices you’ve been seeing for years now. Good luck with that.
This entry was posted on Thursday, August 28th, 2008 at 7:00 pm and is filed under Republican Party, Newsweek Blogitics, Texas, Bob Barr, Third Parties, Democratic Party, 2008 Elections, Barack Obama, John McCain, Elections, Politics. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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