Texas Representative Drew Springer (R-Muenster) has introduced HB 2504. It would require the nominees of parties that nominate by convention to pay the same filing fees that primary candidates must pay. The Texas filing fee was originally enacted to help primary parties pay the election administration costs of their own primaries. No Texas law ever required filing fees for any other candidates.
Texas Representative Valoree Swanson (R-Spring) has introduced HB 4521. It would require independent candidates to pay the same filing fees.
HB 4521 would permit an independent candidate to qualify by paying a filing fee (just like they currently can for special elections).
TEC 142.004(b) currently requires a petition. HB 4521 would permit a filing fee ***OR*** an ***in lieu of petition***. The number of signatures on an in lieu of petition for a primary candidate is less than the number of signatures for an independent candidate. For governor, the difference is 5000 vs. 83,435.
Doesn’t it violate equal protection for candidate D or R to pay fee a fee of $3750 or collect 5000 signatures, while candidate candidate I has to pay a fee of $3750 or collect 83,435 signature?
HB 4521 would also require candidates for convention nomination to pay a filing fee, but like that for primary candidates, it would be paid to the political parties. In the case of primary parties, it is used as an offset to the heavily subsidized primary elections. Convention-nominating parties might use the fees to defray convention expenses, or could use it for general election campaigns. It would seem to me that a legitimate party expenditure would be rebate most or all of the filing fee. An alternative approach would be to let a party set the filing fee – subject to a statutory cap.
This is a really good bill.
Note: Texas legislators are identified by their home county rather than their home post office.
It should be Springer (R-Cooke) and Swanson (R-Harris)
You could also use their district (HD-68 and HD-150, respectively).
Drew Springer has only had one contested election, in the 2012 Republican primary. He was unopposed in the 2012 general election. And has not had an opponent in either the 2014, 2016, or 2018 primary or general election.
Meanwhile his $750 filing fee was paid to the Republican Party of Texas. It was distributed to the county parties in his district ($34 per county). Most of election expense is for election workers, so the money was paid to Republicans.
Meanwhile, Springer has amassed a war chest of $250,000.
A better approach would be to switch to Top 2, with a fall primary. This would simplify filing and administration, sinc all candidates file with same official and all voters can vote in the same location.
If one wanted to preserve partisan nominations, a blanket primary could be held. Each party could determine which voters might participate in their nomination contest. While a party might say who might vote in their primary, they could not dictate that a voter must vote in that primary for all ofices. Voters are not slaves.
Parties could qualify by paying a deposit, which could be defrayed by individual candidate deposits. A reasonable deposit might be $100,000.
A voter’s ballot would be marked with their party affiliation, but they could vote for any candidate in each race.
If a Democrat voted for a Republican, it would not count for the Republican nomination, but might help the candidate to qualify as an independent candidate for the general election.
The Libertarian Party might permit all voters to vote in their primary contests since it might help their candidates qualify for the general election.
Anyone could vote for an independent candidate.
If a party had 2% of the total statewide vote, all party nominees would qualify. If the party received 5% or more of the vote, their deposit would be returned. For lesser support, the deposit return would be pro rata. For example with 4% support 4/5 or 80% would be returned.
A party nominee could also qualify if party candidates received 2% of the total vote for his office. This is why minor parties might permit other voters to participate in their primary.
Independent candidates would qualify if they received 2% of the vote for their office.
A candidate for partisan nomination who did not win the nomination, could qualify as an independent for the general election if they received votes from other party voters that represented 2% or more of the total votes cast.
For example, Debbie Doe seeks the Democratic nomination. The Democratic party does not count votes from Republicans and Libertarians and independents. But these voters may still vote for her. If she receives 2% of the vote from these other voters, then she would advance to the general election as an indepent.
Under such a system, candidate qualification is identical for all candidates, and the election will be conducted by government officials. Moreover, local elections can be held concurently. All elections would be condfucted as joint elections. This would alsdo facilitate conversion of county and judicial races to nmonpasrtisan races.