The two Texas independent candidates for Governor are about to turn in their petitions. It is believed that Carole Strayhorn will turn hers in on May 9, and that Kinky Friedman will turn his in on May 11. The deadline is May 11 for independents, but minor parties have until May 30. The very fact that the minor party petition deadline is 19 days later than the independent candidate deadline shows how irrational the Texas ballot access laws are.
Kinky Friedman has a scheduled Thursday noontime delivery at the Secretary of State’s office. My guess is he will deliver less overall petition signatures than Strayhorn to the Secretary of State, but in the end will have a higher validation rate by the SOS and possibly more overall validated signatures than Strayhorn. Strayhorn’s campaign did not have the groudswell of grassroots support with a focus on accuracy during the petition drive like the Friedman campaign.
As for the timeframe available to independents vs minor parties it is BS. No rhyme or reason. Unfortunately for the Green Party that party has been concerned down here in Texas about the misunderstandings by voters regarding the right of persons to sign BOTH an independent candidate petition and also a minor party petition. Registered voters CAN sign both, but with all the directions by the Strayhorn/Friedman campaigns not to sign “another” petition meaning another independent gubernatorial petition the Greens have had a difficult time educating the public that there is no prohibition to sign an independent and minor party petition.
Here is an article from the Houston Chronicle on the petition drives. Not a well written article and inaccruate regarding the strategies used by the Strayhorn/Friedman campaigns, but still nice to see some ink on this aspect of the election process. http://chron.com/disp/story.mpl/politics/3847170.html
It makes me wonder why one of them did not run as a Reform Party candidate. The party would have loved to get behind them and it would have been easier for both to get on the ballot.
They probably felt that the Reform Party carries too much baggage with it.