The Austin Chronicle, the free weekly newspaper for Austin, Texas, here summarizes Libertarian and Green Party activity expected in the 2014 election. Texas has the nation’s earliest congressional primary in 2014. Even though the two ballot-qualified minor parties nominate by convention, rather than by primary, state law forces candidates seeking a convention nomination to file an intent to run in December of the year before the election. The minor party conventions are free to nominate someone else other than the person who filed, but the parties are not permitted to nominate anyone for an office for which no party member had filed.
Hoops, hoops, gota jump through the hoops! What a pathetic joke.
Under certain conditions, there can be an extended filing deadline for a primary. This happened this year, when Rep.Steve Stockman filed for the US Senate at the last moment. There was an extension of time to permit other candidates to file for his representative district. It is also possible to have extended filing if there is a single candidate, and they withdraw at the deadline.
The idea is to prevent an incumbent acting like he is going to file for re-election, thus discouraging challengers, and then at the last moment his favored relative, friend, or legislative aide filing for an office that only they knew would be open.
But because of the need to print ballots and send them overseas by mid-January, the extension is only a few days.
The same process is available for convention-nominating parties. The difference is that they may set the extended filing deadline by party rule. The Libertarian Party permits filing up to 11:59 pm the night before a convention, if a candidate dies, withdraws, or is declared ineligible.
I don’t think the Libertarian party uses the law as a subterfuge, but might if a candidate dies or moves, or otherwise withdraws.
ps The article indicated that the Green Party may lose its party qualification. But no Democrats filed for two statewide judicial seats. Libertarians did file for those two positions, but no Greens appeared to have done so.er