The federal court hearing in Texas over procedures for checking the signatures of independent candidates, filed by independent gubernatorial candidate Carole Strayhorn, will be on May 1 in Austin. The issues are whether independents can turn in signatures on a flow basis, or whether they are restricted to only a single turn-in; and whether the Secretary of State may refuse to use the statutory procedures for random sampling.
Ballot Access News
Edited By Richard Winger
Having worked in several petition campaigns, I know from first-hand experience how much the employees at the various offices that receive petitions resent getting big bundles of petitions — usually right when they are busiest anyway on all the other tons of stuff they have to do for upcoming elections.
Sure, it makes for a news release and a nice photo op, turning in what seems to be a succesful gathering, but, honestly, being able to turn in a few at a time would be beneficial to the officials and to the campaigners.
They can learn, as they go along, how many signatures are valid and accepted, and how many more they need.
Since it makes sense, though, naturally the politicians will oppose it.
The Secretary of State for Texas is playing politicl games, but will just be creating problems for his employees. He should accept petitions on a frequent basis, but keep in mind he needs to cross reference against voter rolls (are the petition signers registered voters), did the petitions signer vote in the primary and run-off primary and finally did the petiton signer also sign another petition for independent governor. This last one is the difficult one, ie you can’t check it until after ALL the petitions are turned in by Friedman, Strayhorn the other minor gubernatorial independent hopefuls)