In July this year, Laura Thompson was told by the Texas Secretary of State that she did not have the needed 500 valid signatures to be on the November 2016 ballot as an independent candidate for State Representative, 120th district. This announcement had been proved to be ironic on August 2, when Thompson was elected to the same district for a short term. She had been on the ballot in the special election easily, because Texas does not require any candidate in a special election to submit a petition.
Thompson did not agree that she had failed to get 500 valid signatures to be on the November 2016 ballot for the same office. She contested the ruling that her petition was not valid. Finally, on September 8, the Secretary of State changed his mind and said her petition is valid. See this story.
Obtaining 500 signatures may sound easy, but when the petitioning period is short, and when the law provides that no one who voted in the primary may sign (as Texas does), it is not easy.
Texas has a straight-ticket device, which will make it more difficult for Thompson to be re-elected. Thanks to Sidney Smith for the link.
The restriction is on voters voting in a primary that nominated someone for the office. Since the Republicans did not nominate a candidate, Republican voters would be eligible to sign the petition.
10,203 voted in the Democratic for district 120, though more likely voted in the presidential primary, and would also be disqualified. In 2014, there were around 77,000 registered non-suspense voters. But in 2012 only a little over 54,000 voted (23,000 persons who are registered, but did not show up to vote in a presidential election, are going to be hard to locate). So the 500 signatures came from a pool of perhaps 40,000 voters.
The former representative, Ruth Jones McClendon, had been in office and was well regarded. Still in 2014, a Libertarian opponent received about 18% of the vote. A voting machine will flag a race if there is no party candidate. It is conceivable that an independent candidate will have more appeal than a Libertarian. On the other hand, Thompson’s opponent is the sister of George Gervin, who has remained active in the community after his retirement from the Spurs.