On April 6, the Texas Senate State Affairs Committee amended SB 100 and passed the bill. As amended, the primary would continue to be in the first week in March. But the run-off primary moves from the 2nd Tuesday in April, to the 4th Tuesday in May.
If the bill passes in that form, in 2012, the petition deadline to put a new or minor party on the ballot would remain unchanged, and would be May 20. But the run-off primary would not be until May 22. Texas is the only state that does not permit primary voters to sign a petition for a new or minor party. But, under the literal language of the law, if SB 100 passes in its existing form, a voter could sign for a party petition and still vote in a run-off primary, and the signature would count.
Most Texas legislators have a rigid conviction that it would be bad public policy to permit a voter to sign a ballot access petition for a new or minor party and still participate in the primary of a major party. However, this bill breaches that way of thinking.
P.R. and App.V — NO primaries and runoff primaries are needed or wanted.
Qualification of party in Texas is based on either (1) past electoral performance; or (2) voters affiliating with the party. (ie same as California).
Unlike California, Texas does not require voters to affiliate with a party before it is permitted to engage in nominating activities (though nominating activities of parties in California are now largely proscribed), and voters are not permanently affiliated with a party.
A party simply tells the SOS that they are going to make nominations that election year. The party holds precinct conventions just like other small parties, and counts the number of participants. Voters may only participate in the convention or primary of a single party.
What you erroneously characterize as a ballot access petition, is a petition which supplements precinct convention lists (eg voters who would have affiliated with the party by attending its precinct conventions, but were unable to do so).
The petition contains the following:
“I know that the purpose of this petition is to entitle the _______ Party to have its nominees placed on the ballot in the general election for state and county officers. I have not voted in a primary election or participated in a convention of another party during this voting year, and I understand that I become ineligible to do so by signing this petition. I understand that signing more than one petition to entitle a party to have its nominees placed on the general election ballot in the same election is prohibited.”
181.006(f) says that a voter who signs a supplemental petition is ineligible to affiliate with another political party; and 162.003(1) says a voter becomes affiliated with a party when accepted to vote at a primary.
Perhaps Texas should require parties circulating the supplemental petition to stamp the party on the voter certificate, or to issue a certificate of affiliation, just like occurs at a primary or convention, to make the fact of affiliation clearer to the voter.
It has long been possible to sign a supplemental petition prior to the primary runoff. The only thing that is different under SB 100 is that the deadline for signing is before the runoff. So instead of some signatories being ineligible to vote in the runoff, all signatories are.