Texas Court Puts Candidate Back on Ballot Despite Her Leaving a Few Entries Blank on Declaration of Candidacy

On January 19, a Texas lower state court put incumbent Judge Teresa Hawthorne back on the Democratic primary ballot. The party had removed her because she didn’t fill in all the blanks on her declaration of candidacy. And in the blank for “party” she wrote the date of the election. See this story.


Comments

Texas Court Puts Candidate Back on Ballot Despite Her Leaving a Few Entries Blank on Declaration of Candidacy — 3 Comments

  1. Some quota limit in NOT filling out forms LEGALLY ??? 1, 2 errors -OK – 3 or more errors BAD

    How many senile judges ??? — in addition to SCOTUS HACKS ???

  2. It was actually on her petition. Because it was a judgeship in a more populous county, a petition is required for primary candidates.

    Signing a petition for a primary candidate is an affiliating action, and makes the signer ineligible to vote in the primary or convention of another party. The petition states:

    This statement MUST be read to each person before signing the petition.

    “I know that the purpose of this petition is to entitle “Debbie Democrat” to have their name placed on the ballot for the office of “Dallas County Hides Inspector” for the “Democratic” primary election. I understand that by signing this petition I become ineligible to vote in a primary election or participate in a convention of another party, including a party not holding a primary election, during the voting year in which this primary election is held.”

    In this case the candidate apparently wrote “March 6, 2018” instead of “Democratic”. Note that the statement is written from the perspective of the signer, so that they would know and acknowledge the consequences of their signing. The notarized oath of the circulator is that they read the statement to the signer before they signed the petition.

    It is possible that the blanks were filled in after the petition was circulated, in which case the circulator committed perjury. Alternatively, the circulator may have committed vote fraud, by misleading the voter to give up their right to participate in Republican, Libertarian, or Green party nomination activities.

    If I were the Democratic Primary, I’d hope that candidate does not win the nomination.

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