A hearing was held in Miller v Hughs, w.d., 1:19cv-700, on October 31. This is the lawsuit over various Texas ballot access laws that injure minor parties and independent candidates. Although the lawsuit will be lengthy and covers many issues, there is likely to be a decision soon on whether to enjoin the new filing fees for convention parties. The 2019 legislature passed a bill that, for the first time, requires candidates of parties that nominate by convention to pay the same filing fees that primary candidates pay. That issue needs to be settled fast, because the fees or petitions in lieu of the fee are due very soon.
ANY brain cells in the plaintiffs lawyers able to detect EQUAL in 14-1 ???
INDIVIDUAL candidate names on ballots.
I talked on Twitter to one of the plaintiffs; they had a generally good feeling about the hearing. Stand by.
Should there be any filing fees?
MB-
Upon further review–
NOOOO filing fees.
Zillionaires will fill the ballots with diversion hacks if there are filing fees.
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Simple one person ballot access forms —
I nominate [A.Z.] for [office] in the [date] election.
Elector sig, name, address, date signed.
Don’t States need filing fees to help pay for the cost of elections?
“Don’t states need filing fees to help pay for the cost of elections”
In Texas the LP pays for the entire nominating convention. The candidates don’t cost the state anything at all.
I could see – maybe sorta – charging a filing fee for the final nominee who will appear on the ballot, since the Dems and Reps have to pay for their names to be on the ballot.
But in any case (1) the fees don’t cover even a fraction of the cost of an election, and (2) similar justifcations were used for poll taxes and people saw through what was really going on.
If the fess are upheld it’s too late for this cycle, and this might cost us TX ballot access since the kindly volunteers who run for positions like Supreme Court and get us our 5% every cycle might not be willing if it costs $5K.
But the strategy for 2022 should be to hold a “virtual internal unofficial prenomination convention” in October 2021 before the state filing nomination, with voting on pre-nominees who only file within the party. Then only people who know they have reasonable support would need to file officially and pay $5K. In the “official” state mandated convention in June 2022 we can rubber stamp the October results and focus our efforts on barbecue and beer.
Cost per election —
as percent of Gross State Product ???
More or less than 0.1 percent ???
Average State/local taxes now about 12-15 percent of GSP ???
Yeah, I was referring to filing fees for the noiminee — for ballot access — and not a fee to organize a political party/nominate candidates.
The legislature did not pass a law that requires similarly situated candidates to pay filing fees, nor are the fees the same other than in the $ amount.
Texas requires candidates for primary nomination to pay a filing fee. The fee is paid to the political party administering the party. The party uses the fees to pay for ink and paper and other expenses of the primary. Prior to ‘Bullock v. Carter’ the filing fees plus donations paid for primaries. Since then, the State of Texas has paid the bulk of costs of primaries. Nobody is going to donate to a party that gets money from the state. Much of the money is spent on party supporters. Election workers are quite likely to be party members, who may turn around and donate their wages to the party, or would have volunteered their time. It is in essence a patronage position. County chairs are also paid. In 2008, the treasurer of the Democratic Party in Bexar County embezzled the money intended to pay for the rental of county election equipment and services. After the primaries and any primary runoffs have been canvassed, state and county election officials are notified so that nominees can appear on the general election ballot.
Candidates who want to be considered for nomination by a convention-nominating party filed an application with their party chair. There is no fee for filing. The political parties, including Libertarian and Green pay for their own nominating activities. After the nominations are made state and county election officials are notified so that the nominees can appear on the general election ballot.
Independent candidates circulate their petitions after the other nominations have been (largely) completed. They do not pay a filing fee, though Drew Springer claimed that they did.
The legislature passed a bill that would require candidates nominated by convention to pay a filing fee. Rather than the money being paid to party officials to defray the expenses of nomination, it would be be paid to the state general fund. The money could even be used to increase the salaries of Democrat and Republican legislators. The bill left the details up to the SOS.
The SOS mis(mal)interpreted the legislation to apply to applicants for consdideration for nomination. Such persons may or may not be nominated. The convention might choose someone else. The applicant might be ineligible, might die, might withdraw. The convention might choose not to nominate, or not to be held. Or the party might not qualify.
The misinterpretation resulted in bifurcated application. The applicant would file with the state party chair, and also send a copy of the application along with a check or an in lieu of petition to the SOS. It is not clear who is responsible for making the copy of the application. The state party chair might be located in some city other than Austin. Applications sent by mail are considered to be received when the recipient receives them, so an applicant might end up driving between three cities, his home, the location of the state chair, and Austin.
It is unknown whether the SOS will check the petition, or when they will do so. A legal challenge based on an insufficient petition might happen just before the general election ballots are printed in September, 9 months after they have been submitted. A party might have to do a FOIA request to determine if a candidate has filed with the SOS, or even sue.
@eeyn,
That sounds like the Jaybird primaries that the Democrats used. See ‘Terry v Adams’.
@M&D,
When filing fees were used to pay the cost of primaries, they resulted in filing fees so extraordinary that they were unconstitutional (see ‘Bullock v Carter’). Since then the state has subsidized the cost of primaries.
In Texas, the parties administer their own primaries. Filing fees are paid to the party, not the state. The parties receive the benefit of publicity, and expenses may be paid to party members, including election workers and county chairs. If a party is not organized in a county, there is no primary.
Primary elections are held in different locations. They may be in different buildings.
The simplest system would require a party to fund its own nominating expenses. If a party couldn’t afford a primary, they could nominate by convention.
Parties could qualify based on head count at their primaries or conventions.
Wow. Texas elections are a bit nutty.
Jim
I concede there’s potential for abuse. However, presumably the LP wouldn’t be conducting a “whites only” pre-convention.
I also agree that your proposed solution is much better, it’s just that our legislature and SoS aren’t likely to switch to that system. In the mean time most of our LP candidates aren’t actually running in the hopes of landing an office with a salary and power over other people. They’re volunteers expecting to gain nothing tangible and they don’t have $5K to invest in that.
What sort of ballot access and elections in Texas in 1836-1845 –
BEFORE joining USA ???
Since when are parties/candidates suppose to pay for PUBLIC nominations/elections of PUBLIC officers ???
@eeyn,
There is a dialogue reproduced in ‘Terry v Adams’ where in his deposition he says that blacks can vote in JJuly (the regular primary). The goal was that the Jaybird primary would be decisive.
I’m always reminded of this when advocates of exclusionary partisan primaries say that independents can vote in November.
If general elections in Texas were conducted as special elections, then there would be a ballot draw for each office in each county, everyone would pay a filing fee, and there would be no party qualification.
This should make the Democrats happy, Republicans happy, minor parties happy, and independents happy.
Who paid for the olde Jaybird primaries ???
IE — the white Donkeys as PRIVATE 1 Amdt group citizens ???
@DR,
Recall that Texas had Saturday elections. It may have been feasible for everyone to vote in Richmond. In 1950 there were only 30,000 persons in the county.