Comments on: Democrats, Republicans Miss Texas Deadline to Certify Presidential Nominees

By: james

james — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 19:13:10 +0000

Is there anyway I can confirm this through multiple sources? I got a few skeptics I would like to run this by, as it might help them make a choice. But secondly I hate these access laws, the amount of signatures you have to get for your candidate are insane compared to the actual effort it would be to just add them to the ballot. It’s made it impossible for me to get out to give it the old college try because I pretty much work every day of the week.

By: Alán Alán Apurim

Alán Alán Apurim — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 18:55:06 +0000

There are two legally questionable issues in play. First, the original ballot-access law, which permits a party to be listed with its candidates only if it either gets a relatively high percentage of the vote (highly unlikely with corporate-sponsor media tied in with the two major corporate-sponsored political parties – the media pertends there are no other parties) OR the signatures route. The latter is restricted by laws passed by the two dominant parties that first worded the ballot-access law that signatures could be collected from registered voters only if they had not voted in another party’s primary. then held their primaries BEFORE the “window” of time the signatures were to be collected (40,000 verified voter signatures, minimum), meaning third parties must get signatures from the “leftover” voters, not the full and equal access.
Sounds like a ACLU class-action equal-justice lawsuit to me, but most ACLU offices are badly underfunded and understaffed in this state. The second issue is the one this thread of postings (“blog”) addresses: the judge’s rulng that (in agreement with most all of others familiar with the case) is clearly selective enforcement of a law. I am going to call the State of Texas Secretary of State toll-free number 800-252-8683 given to me by the Harris County Clerk’s office (who supplies ballot-listing information to be printed by the League of Women Voters, who had referred me to them).
Our party – the Green Party of Texas, tried to qualify via the signatures route, but failed to get the required number (the “leftover” voters issue), but we DID meet the deadline by presenting to the state our slate of ElectoralCollege delegates required for (just in case) the winning party to provide in the winner-take-all national election (NOT a “popular vote” total, we still cling to the antiquated Electoral College to “really” elect a President), and secondly, the actual signed petition-form by the candidates to be listed on the ballot as “Write-In” candidates (not listed under a political-party heading). We are open to cooperatively working with the Libertarian Party (as we did in 2004 exposing fraud via a recount-petition in Ohio and other states http://www.iwantmyvote.com/recount/ that led to that state’s electoral college votes going to select Bush over Kerry who wimped out, conceding what was rightfully his) and all other “third” parties towards the objective of fair and non-partisan election laws in Texas. The candidates that DID make the deadline, Presidential nominee Cynthia McKinney http://votetruth08.com and VP-candidate Rosa Clemente http://RosaClemente.com have outstanding values and are not corporate-sponsored; no Green Party http://gp.org candidates are subject to bribery of lobbyists, corporate sponsors, or other non-voter entities!

By: TL

TL — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 19:40:54 +0000

@mk;60. If you are NOT entitled, then you are NOT entitled to be on the ballot. Laws are written with the intent to permit or prevent action, they are not written for both ways.

By: mk

mk — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 23:44:57 +0000

you guys are missing the word ENTITLED.

this law gives political parties a right to be on the ballot.

does the election law FORBID anyone from being on the ballot?

From these excerpts I don’t see anything forbidding the Texas government from putting names it feels are worthy on the ballot.

By: Hector

Hector — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 05:58:00 +0000

Jules said what everybody should do on their own… “We need to hear everyone…….” I hope one of these days people of the US switch off FOXnews, MSNBCnews, etc and take an active role. The mass media provides us with the news and updates of whoever pays, not what is true and real. How long ago did Iraq and Afghan fall off the front pages, yet our men are still dying. How many candidates are actually running for presidency? yet what are the only two names out there? we need to tell our frieds, family, and neighbors, its not about the lesser of two evils, http://www.votesmart.org/election_president.php

By: Jules Rensch

Jules Rensch — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 03:18:53 +0000

Go ahead and let the GOP and DEMS on the ballot….but only if Independent Parties are allowed a Full Debate with McCain and Obama on Texas TV & Radio. We need to hear everyone…….

By: Mommy

Mommy — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 22:09:14 +0000

I live in Florida…our votes never count anyway. 2000, 2004, 2008 primary. It would be nice to see another state have to suffer the same fate as we did. Especially since it is a RED state. I love TX, but, HA!!!

By: James

James — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 20:01:08 +0000

Actually, if an agreement kept both Obama and McCain off the ballot, Obama would say yes and sign on the dotted line faster than you can blink.

Texas electoral votes going to Barr.. game over.

By: Aela

Aela — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 21:52:29 +0000

Actually, the thing I find funny/typical about this goes back to the little publicized story about how Obama won his first Chicago campaign. And then add to that all the “rules are rules” stuff he kept spouting during the Florida/Michigan fiasco. If someone were to *conclusively* prove Obama missed the Texas deadline, how likely is it that he’d say, “Oh, well, being a totally honest politician who believes rules are rules and must be obeyed as I kept insisting during the primaries, then I will not be on the Texas ballot.” Yeah, right.

By: Actually

Actually — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 05:40:14 +0000

The official Texas site (linked to in the article) now shows the tickets for both major parties.

Storm in a teacup, folks.