The 3-judge U.S. District Court in San Antonio (the court handling the Texas redistricting case) is in session at the moment this blog post is being written. According to Texas Redistricting Blog, which has reporters in the courtroom, one of the three judges has just said that it is very likely that the primary will be May 29. I am about to leave the house for a few hours so anyone who wants to check news.google to see if this date becomes final should do so.
Ballot Access News
Edited By Richard Winger
May 29 for primary, and allowing 70 days until runoff:
Aug 7, 30 days for independent petitioning
Sep 6, and allowing 14 days to count signatures
Sep 20, and allowing 70 days until general election
On November 27.
Independent Presidential candidates need 80,778 valid signatures – will they also only have 30 days to collect signatures?
Granted, the 49,729 valid for a new party or non-presidential independent will be difficult.
That would require an average of 1,657.63 valid signatures PER DAY for a non-presidential independent candidate or new party and 2,692.6 valid signatures PER DAY for an independent presidential candidate.
One more EVIL and VICIOUS minority rule gerrymander regime WHATEVER MORON date for the gerrymander district primaries.
1/2 votes x 1/2 gerrymander PACK and CRACK districts = 1/4 control.
Much worse with the MORON primary math — choosing the fanatic left/right extremists in the districts.
#2 HA!
The starting and ending dates are independently set.
Independent presidential candidates may begin collecting the day after the primary.
The petition is due the 2nd Monday in May.
So they have from May 30, 2012 to May 14, 2012 (negative 15 days) to collect the signatures.
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For offices other than President, it is different.
In Texas, you affiliate with a party by voting in their primary or participating in their convention. Voters who voted in a primary where there was a particular office on the ballot, can not sign an independent petition for that office.
In 2006, Kinky Friedman ran ads encouraging voters to “Save Themselves For Kinky” by not voting in the primary, which allowed them to sign the Friedman petition. Petition signing can’t begin until the day after the primary, so that it can be determined which voters had defiled themselves by affiliating with a party, and which had saved themselves.
If there are no candidates for nomination on a primary ballot, then primary voters may sign an independent petition for that office. So if the Democrats don’t nominate someone for county commissioner in Jim Bob County, then Democrat voters can sign an independent petition for that office; along with voters who skipped the primaries altogether.
Where it gets (more) complicated is when there is a runoff for an office. It is assumed that a voter who didn’t vote in the primary, might show up for the runoff. Since we can’t be sure, for that office signatures can’t be collected until after the runoff.
Since there is a possibility of delay of the starting period for signing, the end of the filing period is based on the runoff date. If there are no runoffs for an office, there are about 100 days to collect the signatures, and if there is runoff, 30 days.
P.R. and nonpartisan App.V.
NO moron primaries
NO moron runoff primaries
ONE election day per cycle.
@4 – I was basing the 30 days for petitioning on the dates and number of days you provided in #1. I thought those dates & numbers came from the court ruling.
Any idea what will happen for any independent presidential candidates?
How many 2011-2012 election law machinations in all States/DC so far — regarding ballot access ??? — changes in dates, percentages, etc.
ALL fun and games for the EVIL ANTI-Democracy gerrymander robot party hacks — partly to DIVIDE and CONQUER.
#6 The court has suggested that May 29 is the earliest date that the primary can be held.
It has been generally agreed that 70 days is the minimum amount of time between rounds in a federal election. Given the requirement of sending overseas ballots out 45 days in advance, that only leaves 25 days to canvass results, do recounts, and prepare ballots for the next round. So 45 days is in federal law, and the canvassing period is in state law. So while 70 days may not be a legal requirement, it is pretty close to being one. In fact, the bill that implemented the MOVE act, SB 100, prescribed between 70 and 77 days from the canvass of a special congressional election and any runoff (Texas holds special elections as partisan elections without nominations, but with a majority required).
Texas can’t unilaterally do away with primary runoffs, and I don’t think a federal court could either, and the same applies to petitioning for independent candidates. The 30 days for petitioning after runoffs is in state law. My guess was 14 days to count signatures on a petition, which includes checking whether the signers voted in a primary.
So a May 29 primary would result in a November 27 general election. It might be possible to squeeze 3 weeks out of the schedule. The canvass of the runoff can happen while petition gathering for independent candidates is going on. And maybe a week can be eliminated from ballot preparation. So it may be barely possible to have a general election on time.
Therefore May 29 is not only the earliest possible primary, it is also the latest possible primary. If the interim districts are not set in the next couple of weeks, the other primaries will have to go on May 29, and the legislative and congressional elections happen as special elections in November.
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The procedure for independent presidential candidates is totally different than that for independent candidates for other offices.
Other independent candidates must file in December, and then collect signatures after the primary. The number of signatures for statewide candidates is based on the last gubernatorial vote, and there is longer to collect signatures – with the period relative to the primary. When they changed the date of the runoff (last session), it accidentally increased the period for collecting signatures, when there is not a runoff for an office.
Independent presidential candidates don’t need to prefile, but they have less time to collect signatures. The deadline is specifically set in law, and is not X days from the primary. Also the number of signatures is based on the last presidential vote. So to run statewide for Senator requires almost 50,000 signatures, but to run statewide for president requires almost 81,000.
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Nobody involved in the SA court has shown the slightest awareness that there are other parties than the Democrats and Republicans, or independent candidates. The court has specifically ordered the litigating parties to consult with the Democratic and Republican parties about election schedules. The Democrats are intervening plaintiffs. The Republican and Democratic party chairs were formally named as defendants, because they conduct their own primaries, and the plaintiffs were seeking an injunction against them conducting the primaries using the districts passed by the legislature.