On January 23, the voter-plaintiffs submitted a response in Perez v State of Texas, the Texas redistricting case that is in 3-judge U.S. District Court in San Antonio. That court had asked them to respond to the state’s idea that the status conference in this case be on an earlier date than February 1.
The voter-plaintiffs say the same attorneys who are representing them in San Antonio are also representing them in the 3-judge court in Washington, D.C., which is holding a trial on whether the legislature’s plan violates the Voting Rights Act. Therefore, they say it is entirely impractical to have proceedings in both courts simultaneously this week. They request that the status conference in San Antonio continue to be set for February 1.
The Democratic Party of Texas also filed a document in San Antonio on January 23. The Democratic Party filing says, “The Texas Democratic Party has and continues to support a unified primary insofar as it is possible. Nonetheless, the Supreme Court ruling in this case seems to require substantial additional work from counsel to this case and from this Court, in particular. The members of the Court are best able to determine what and when they can accomplish in terms of reviewing the evidence, preparing interim maps and issuing opinions to support each interim map. The Texas Democratic Party is prepared to work with all parties with respect to the preparation of an election schedule once it is known when district maps will be available.” This is very vague, but seems to hint that perhaps Texas should hold two primaries, one for president, U.S. Senate, and local partisan office; and one for U.S. House and state legislature.
There is no reason to hold two primaries. Texas requires a majority for primary nominations, and it is almost certain that there will be a Republican senatorial runoff, and strong possibility of a Democratic runoff.
The primary runoff is currently scheduled for June 5. If the legislative and congressional primaries were left off the April 3 ballot, they could be held concurrently with the June 5 runoff.
There is virtually no cost to leaving some races off the primary ballot. There are 10 statewide races (president, US Senate, 2 Railroad Commission, and 6 statewide judicial races), state board of education district races, quite numerous appeals courts and district judicial races, county and precinct offices (note there are no local races since they are nonpartisan). Of Democratic candidates who have filed, 90% have filed for offices other than congress or the legislature.
Of the 434 primary races (150 House, 31 Senate, and 36 Congress x 2 parties), 36% have zero candidates who have filed. They don’t have to be held. Another 42% have only a single candidate. If they are conducted as a special primary under court order they can be left off the ballot. Only 22% have 2 or more candidates. There will be many parts of the state with no legislative/congressional races and others with one or two.
If the primary is held on April 3, then there will be no problem with holding the state conventions in June, and the minor parties can hold their precinct conventions. If Americans Elect fail to attract 50,000 persons to their precinct conventions, they can start their supplementary petition drive.
Delaying the legislative and congressional races, gives an additional 2 months to draw the maps.
It is possible that there will be changes in election precincts, but this can always be accomplished by splitting April precincts, and holding the June runoff at the same polling place. Voters can be directed to the correct room or voting booths for their portion of the now split precinct.
Texas election law requires a longer early voting period before the primary, than before the runoff. But the congressional and legislative races would be special primaries under court order, and the extra week dropped with a court order. Similarly the large number of races with no or only a single candidate can be dropped from the ballot. Texas does not allow write-ins in primaries, so there is no harm in simply declaring a sole-filer as the nominee.
There may be a very few areas where a congressional or legislative runoff is needed (in late July or August). Based on past elections, these might be about 5%, and very localized. This is the main extra cost for “splitting” the primary.