Texas held its 2010 primary on March 2. Turnout appears to be 800,000 voters in the Democratic primary, and 1,500,000 in the Republican primary, or a total of approximately 2,300,000. However, Texas has 13,023,358 registered voters.
Voters who voted in the primary cannot sign petitions for minor parties or independent candidates, which begin to circulate on March 3. Only about one-sixth of the voters voted in the primary, so petitioners will be able to collect from the other five-sixths of the voters. There will be run-off primaries in April, but they are unlikely to attract many voters. The Green and Constitution Parties will be actively trying to obtain the needed 43,991 valid signatures.
Ron Paul had three Republican opponents in his primary, but he still won over 80% of the Republican primary vote in his district.
Pingback: Low turnout in Texas primary is good news for petitioning minor parties | Independent Political Report
One of the things that really sucks about petitioning in Texas is that a voter can only signer a petition for one political party and one independent candidate. So this means that if the Green Party and the Constitution Party are petitioning at the same time that a person can only sign one of the petitions. This makes things more difficult than it would be otherwise.
Pingback: Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » A predictable bit of stupidity…
I’m sure that Jim Riley would argue that, if the Lone Star State had a “top two” election system, a great many more of his fellow Texans would turn out to vote.
I keep wondering when Jim is going to approach at least one state legislator about this marvelous concept.
Today is the centennial of a great American, Richard M. Weaver.
Richard Winger continues to refuse to recognize the framework under which Texas conducts its elections.
Nomination of all candidates is roughly contemporaneous. Texas does not maintain permanent records of political activity, but a voter may only participate in the nomination of one candidate per office in an election year.
Yesterday, on the first Tuesday in March (and also Independence Day) Texas citizens had the option to participate in either the Republican or the Democratic party primaries and precinct conventions.
Next month, on April 13, there will be a primary runoff for party nominations in which no candidate achieved a majority. Voters may not switch parties between the primary and the runoff, but citizens who did not vote or have not affiliated with a minor party in the interim may vote in the runoff of their choice.
Beginning on Wednesday March 3, for offices in which there is no runoff, candidates seeking an independent nomination may begin circulating petitions. If a citizen voted in a primary where his party nominated a candidate for a particular office, he may not sign an independent petition for a candidate seeking that office.
On the second Tuesday in March, March 9, minor parties hold their precinct conventions. The Libertarian, Green, and Constitution parties will be holding precinct conventions on that date.
Unlike states such as California, new parties seeking to qualify to make nominations are not required to pre-qualify. Instead they qualify on the basis of actual participation in their precinct conventions.
So the precinct conventions of the Green and Constitution parties serve a dual purpose: (1) first step in the nomination process for the parties; and (2) to qualify the eventual nominees to appear on the general election ballot. The Libertarian Party is already qualified, so their conventions simply begin the nomination process.
If 43,991 voters show up at the precinct conventions of the Green Party, then the list of convention participants will serve to qualify the party to have its nominees on the November ballot. Participating in a precinct convention is the equivalent of voting in a primary as far as affiliating with a party.
If less than that many voters show up, then the Green Party may supplement its convention participation list with signatures of other voters. These voters may not have voted in the primary or convention of another party, nor have signed a petition qualifying another party.
My guess is that the Green Party would prefer that voters actually show up for the precinct conventions and actually participate in the nomination process and platform formulation for the party, rather than merely signing the qualifying petition.
Note, parties may consolidate precincts. In some cases the smaller parties hold precinct conventions for all the precincts in a county at a single location.
Also, nominating activities are organized on a county basis. Neither the Republican or Democratic parties held primaries in all 254 counties, and it is possible that the Libertarian, Green, and Constitution parties may not have precinct conventions in all counties.
#4
In 1978, turnout in the two primaries was 38.88%, 92% of that in the Democratic primary.
In 2010, turnout in the two primaries was 16.61%, the highest in a non-presidential election since 1994.
When Texas effectively had a decisive primary election, turnout was indeed higher.