On April 27, the Texas House Elections Committee listened to 40 minutes of testimony in favor of HB 820, the bill to improve ballot access for minor parties and independent candidates.
The hearing started 4 hours later than scheduled, so most of the potential witnesses had to go home before the hearing started. But the committee listened to testimony from representatives of the Constitution Party, the Reform Party, and Public Citizen. Most of the legislators on the committee sat through the testimony, even though it ended after 10 p.m. HB 820 would drastically lower the number of signatures needed for ballot access.
One of the things that makes Texas so difficult is not so much the number of signatures that you’ve got to collect – which is like 45,000 valid out of a population of like 24.6 million (Texas is the 2nd most populated state) – but rather the fact that they only give you 70 days to collect the signatures. They ought to increase the time for signature gathering. If it were say at least 6 months it wouldn’t be so bad.
Also, they should get rid of the primary screen out and allow people to sign petitions for as many minor party and independent candidates who are seeking spots on the ballot.
At the founding of the Republic self-nomination was the accepted practice for access to the ballot even though only white, male, property owners could self-nominate and vote. Now the suffrage is nearly universal, but the right/privilege of nomination is severely curtailed. Why has this reversal taken place? Because access to the ballot controls the outcome of elections and sustains an oligarchical party system. Hence, making the notion of the consent of the governed a sham.
Secession is a serious option to this oppression.
Major parties nominate by primaries. Minor parties (including new parties trying to qualify) nominate by convention. The initial stage of the convention process occurs the same date as the primary. In effect, parties are competing with each other for voters to participate in their nomination process.
A new party qualifies by getting the specified number of persons to show up for their precinct conventions. The 70 days is mainly to give a party to the opportunity to collect the convention rosters from across the State. In addition, Texas permits voters who did not participate in the nomination process of any party to sign a petition that augments the count of participants in the conventions.
Instead of limiting voters, perhaps voters should be able to vote in as many primaries and conventions as they want to, vote for as many candidates on the primary ballot, and sign the petitions of as many independent candidates as they choose.