On April 1, the Texas House Elections Committee passed HB 2504 by 7-2. It requires candidates nominated by convention to pay filing fees, or submit a petition in lieu of a filing fee. Current law says that the only candidates who pay filing fees are those seeking a place on a primary ballot.
The logic of the two U.S. Supreme Court filing fee decisions, Bullock v Carter and Lubin v Panish, suggests that requiring candidates nominated in a convention to pay a filing fee would be unconstitutional. The two decisions say that filing fees harm voting rights, and therefore they can only exist if they are necessary to keep ballots from being crowded with too many candidates. But there are no public ballots at conventions; parties run their own conventions without government involvement. And the Texas general election ballot is not crowded because the ballot access laws are so severe.
The bill does not require independent candidates to pay a filing fee. If the bill is signed into law, the only immediate effect would be on Libertarian Party candidates. The Libertarian Party is the only ballot-qualified party that nominates by convention. The bill is now pending in the House Calendars Committee. Thanks to Linda Curtis for this news.
LP is a direct threat to Elephant oligarchs in all States.
How many COMMAND orders from Devil City to wipe out ballot access of ALL 3rd parties and independents ???
During his testimony, the author claimed that independent candidates paid a fee. That is not true (though the petition would satisfy the in lieu of requirement). The one opponent to the bill who testified, said that having learned that independent candidates do pay a filing fee, he was less opposed.
Write-in candidates do pay a fee, with the exception of presidential candidates.
The bill has a lot of technical problrems. A convention-nominating party certifies its nominees to the SOS or the county clerk, depending on the office. But the bill would require the nominee for certain offices to pay the filing fee to the county judge. So the county clerk might have to ask the county judge whether the filing fee had been paid, and the county judge would receive a check which he had no idea what it was for. In Galveston County, an independent candidate for county judge had to go to court to force the county judge he was challenging him to place him on the ballot.
If I am going to run in the Democrat or Republican primary, I can be collecting signatures for the in lieu of petition now, 8 months before the filing deadline. The Libertarian party is required to certify its candidates within 20 days of the convention that nominated them. When would a petition be due? What if the chair of the convention certified its candidates two days after it was held?
Can I be collecting signatures to be placed on the general election ballot before I am even nominated? Or would the filing deadline be in September in time for ballot preparation?
Would there be a screenout? If Danny Democrat or Randy Republican can give Larry Libertarian $750 to pay the filing fee, why can’t they sign an in lieu of petition?
The bill’s fiscal note does not indicate the cost of porential signature validation.
A simpler solution is to require all candidates to file a petition to appear on the primary ballot. If no candidate has a majority, hold a runoff. This would permit local elections to be combined with the primary.