The Lubbock, Texas Avalanche-Journal has this story, drawing attention to the small number of candidates on the November 2010 Texas ballot for state legislature.
Sixteen seats are up in the State Senate. Democrats have candidates in eight of them, and Libertarians are also running in eight State Senate races. There are no independent candidates for the State Senate on the ballot, and no Green Party nominees for State Senate. Republicans have nominees in all 16 races.
All 150 seats are up in the State House of Representatives. Democrats aren’t running anyone in 55 of the seats, and Republicans aren’t running anyone in 38 of the seats. This means that in 93 races out of 150, there is no Republican-Democratic contest. The Libertarian Party has 50 candidates for State House, and the Greens have two. Also there are 2 independent candidates for State House.
The article mentions that the petition drive to put the Green Party on the ballot cost over $500,000, yet doesn’t make the obvious conclusion that if lack of choices is a problem, it is obvious that the ballot access laws are too stringent. The article is incorrect to say that no minor party has ever won a seat in the Texas legislature. Minor parties elected Texas state legislators in the past, before any petition was required to place any party on the ballot. In 1920 the American Party elected four state representatives. In each election 1892 through 1902, the Peoples Party elected state legislators. In 1894, 22 Peoples Party members were elected to the House. A Prohibition Party member was elected to the House in 1886, and Greenback Party members were elected in 1878 and 1880. The American “Know-Nothing” Party elected Texas legislators in 1855 and 1857.
P.R. in ALL regimes —
Total Votes / Total Seats = EQUAL votes needed for each seat winner in legislative bodies.
Demo Rep,
What’s your take on third party write-in candidacies?
#2 — 14th Amdt, Sec. 2 (1868) is still part of the nearly dead U.S.A. Constitution — back when handwriting was a whole lot better than currently.
Any Donkey/Elephant write-in winners in the TX gerrymander legislature since 1865 ???
i.e. The TX regime is one more EVIL STONE AGE BARBARIAN regime with its ANTI-Democracy gerrymanders (causing the many one party safe seat gerrymander districts) and ANTI-Democracy ballot access laws.
All folks on this list – STOP having ANY respect for the party hacks in the State legislatures, the Congress and any appointed judges (especially the party hack SCOTUS folks) — ALL of them long ago became the ENEMIES of the PEOPLE
— i.e. the party hack puppets of the various ANTI-Democracy special interest gangs of monarchs/oligarchs.
Result – undeclared wars, inflations, depressions, etc. etc.
P.R. and nonpartisan App.V.
Demo Rep,
I could careless about Donkey/Elephant write-in winners! I have no interest in them, only third party and independent ones.
There were several quite competitive legislative races in the Panhandle/South Plains this year. They were in March.
First-past-the-post elections are primitive and stupid. Most countries use a form of PR-including the US colony of Iraq.
It’s funny that the only proposed reform that gets any funding is an idiotic pseudo-reform called “instant runoff voting.” No doubt a false-flag operation.