According to this story, the Lubbock County government attorney recently advised the county elections officials that the redistricting lawsuit currently pending may cause Texas to hold its 2012 primary in May instead of March. This would put the petition deadline for new political parties, and for non-presidential independent candidates, into July. Texas law ties the date of the primary to those petition deadlines. Oddly, however, the petition deadline for independent presidential candidates is not tied to the primary date, and would remain in early May. But because Texas won’t let minor party and independent candidates circulate petitions until after the primary is over, obviously the independent presidential deadline would need to be changed as well, or otherwise the law would only give one week for the circulation of an independent presidential candidate petition.
The last time Texas held its primary in May in a presidential year was in 1984. Ever since 1988 it has been in March.
I’m sure some court will rule that 1 week is sufficient to collect nearly one hundred thousand signatures.
Technically, political parties conduct their own primaries in Texas. That is why neither party has a primary in every county, they are not organized in every county, and polling places are at minimum in different rooms, if not different buildings.
But typically they use the county voting equipment, and may enter into contracts with the county election officials to conduct the primary. And in some counties the parties contract with the county to conduct joint primaries. And the county conducts early voting.
Lubbock County is one of several counties that uses countywide voting, where any voter can vote at any polling place on election day, so I’m pretty sure that county election officials conduct both primaries.
The counties can’t send out voter registration certificates until election precincts are set, and they can’t set election precincts until districts are set. So it is conceivable that a delay in setting the legislative and congressional district boundaries could trigger a delay in the entire primary.
If there were a delay, there would be no reason to delay until May. The only reason for suggesting May is that is when the primary runoff would be held. But only if there was a primary in March for some offices, would there be a primary runoff in May for other offices.
Another possibility would be to simply skip the primaries, and hold special elections in November, as has been done in 1996 and 2006 when the court has modified district boundaries.
Too bad that “conduct their own primaries in Texas” doesn’t mean that the pay for their own primaries.
Quite possible to have some MAJOR chaos shortly in SCOTUS regarding the TX gerrymander for U.S.A. Reps. —
i.e. Elephant gerrymander versus the usual suspect Donkey folks with their gerrymander.
At issue – CONTROL of the U.S.A. House of Reps in 2013-2014 — think $$$$$$$ and POWER.
P.R. and nonpartisan App.V.
#3 Back when they did pay for their own primaries, they had some pretty outrageous filing fees, which the SCOTUS found to be unconstitutional.
The SCOTUS also found that it was as plain as dirt that the State could pay for the primaries, and has also said that they can’t be required unless the State pays for them.
The SCOTUS has stayed the plans drawn by the district court majority.
http://www.supremecourt.gov/orders/courtorders/120911zr.pdf
With oral arguments set for January 9, and a decision by ???, this would require moving the filing deadlines by at least a month. The deadline had already been moved to December 15, the latest possible in order to comply with the MOVE act.
It seems unlikely that even if the stay were dissolved a court would say “you had time before the stay to file, you only get 6 days more”
So a legislative and congressional primary in May might be the earliest possible. They can’t do it in early May since that would interfere with local (nonpartisan) elections.
Since the district court only has jurisdiction over the legislature and congressional plans, they might not have the ability to do anything about the presidential, senatorial, judicial, SBOE, and county primaries and runoffs.
It would make it slightly messy for minor parties since their precinct conventions are the same week as the primary; and their county conventions and district conventions are March 17 and 24, at which nominations for all but statewide offices are made.
The filing deadline for minor party candidates is January 2nd, so at minimum that would have to be delayed for legislative and congressional candidates.
And if the district conventions for legislative and congressional candidates are delayed, then there is a problem if the precinct conventions are used for choosing delegates to district conventions, if the districts are indefinite.
The major parties also hold precinct conventions, but they are not part of the nominating process, other than for president. There are intermediate senatorial district conventions, but they presumably could be based on existing (2000) senate districts (delegate strength for the state convention is based on past voting, not population, so these are just an intermediate level in larger counties).
The major parties base their delegate selection on the primary vote in districts (senate for Democrats, congressional for Republicans), but these are by party rule, so I’d guess they could just use the 2000 districts.
Declaration of candidacy for independent candidates is December 15, so that will have to be delayed for legislative and congressional candidates. Their petitioning period begins after the primary or runoff at which nominations by the primary-parties are settled, so a split primary is not a specific problem other than it would be in different times of the year.
And if the presidential primary is still in March, this would not be an (additional) problem for independent presidential candidates.