This news story says 40% of the Texas state house seats have only one candidate running. This is not unusual in Texas.
Comments
News Story on Texas Races With Only One Candidate — 24 Comments
I remember, may have been a full decade ago, Texas Libertarians bragged about how they had a candidate for every state senate seat. Those days have long since vanished.
TX — One of the many left/right extremist TYRANT gerrymander regimes in the USA.
—
PR
APPV
TOTSOP
Gerryandered, single member districts produce a large number of uncontested legislative elections in many states
God bless President Trump
The article is in error. 55 of 150 House districts are unopposed, which is 36.7%.
Of the 150 House districts,
70 are RD contests.
33 are R uncontests.
22 are D uncontests.
12 are LDR contests
6 are LD contests.
5 are LR contests.
1 is an IRD contest.
1 is an ID contest.
The article mentions the certification by the SOS. This is relatively new due to a change in election law. About two decades ago the Texas Constitution was amended to permit an unopposed candidate to be declared elected, and left it up to the legislature to implement it.
It was implemented for local offices. If there is only one candidate, the office is left off the ballot. If there are no contested offices, the election may be cancelled. This is not uncommon in smaller cities, school districts, and MUD’s.
For general elections the certification of unopposed candidates was permissive (“may”). In 2021 this was made mandatory (“shall”). The effect of this certification by the SOS is that counties will leave the offices off their ballot, and add a list of elected candidates at the end of the ballot.
When, the straight ticket was in effect, when a voter on a voting machine selected the straight ticket option, all the candidates for that party were preselected. A voter could always override that on an individual race.
But if a party did not have a candidate for an office then there would be no preselection, and the summary would show something like “no vote”. This would confuse voters, particularly if they believed it a weakness to skip an office or didn’t want to vote for the other party.
Candidates did not want to have their name left off the ballot if they were unopposed. Voters would not notice. If a novice voter asked whether they could vote for a congressman, a veteran voter would condescendingly state that elections of representatives had been done away with years ago, and shake their head at the sad state of high school civics education.
Minority parties in an area may skip a race. Nobody wants to waste the filing fee, and the party or special interest groups are going to spend money where it is more effective. The party may believe if they actively campaign, the opposing party will campaign and drive up votes for other candidates (reverse coattails).
Besides the unopposed district candidates, county clerks will certify unopposed county and precinct offices. These collectively surpass the number of offices certified by the SOS.
36.7% vs 40% is just rounding off.
The (disputed) $750 filing fee just to be considered at the convention must have scared off some potential LP candidates for state house. Let’s hope the federal lawsuit kills it for good.
14-2 Amdt violation if write-ins are NOT allowed and NOT counted.
ROT since 1868 in NON-enforcement of 14-2.
@AZ,
Write-in votes are allowed and counted.
Planning for the 2030 Census has begun. You should forward your apportionment concerns to the Census Bureau.
@Well,
The article said 58 House races, when actual number is 55. Did you bother to check the map in the article, or the SOS certification, or the candidate listings on the SOS web site.
Well if they had got the number right then, well you could say that 36.7% is nearly 40%, and well RW use of 40% might well be accurate.
some confusion reigns –
JR wrote –
For general elections the certification of unopposed candidates was permissive (“may”). In 2021 this was made mandatory (“shall”). The effect of this certification by the SOS is that counties will leave the offices off their ballot, and add a list of elected candidates at the end of the ballot.
—-
NO office on ballot [with write-in space(s)] = direct subversion of 14-2 Amdt.
TX should immediately lose XX.X pct of USA Reps in 2023 and electoral college votes in 2024.
Inform TX media and USA Dist Attys.
All races should have one candidate who should be a Trump Republican and then we can get rid of the races and just have Trump make appointments to everything and fire people when they don’t do their job and replace them.
@AZ,
Please articulate why you believe that the 14th Amendment applies and why the executive branch should get involved in executive matters. TOTSOP.
The races must and should be kept separate. Race mixing is a deadly sin that leads to the collapse of civilizations.
14-2 specifies *** the Executive and Judicial officers of a State, or the members of the Legislature thereof ***
denied — abridged — esp for Voter write-ins.
TOTAL FAILURE to enforce 14-2 in ALL States since 1868.
NOW VIA 28 USC 1331 AND 2 USC SEC. 6
§6. Reduction of representation
Should any State deny or abridge the right of any of the male inhabitants thereof, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, to vote at any election named in the amendment to the Constitution, article 14, section 2, except for participation in the rebellion or other crime, the number of Representatives apportioned to such State shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall have to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State.
(R.S. §22.)
Codification
R.S. §22 derived from act Feb. 2, 1872, ch. 11, §6, 17 Stat. 29.
—
RELATED ROT-
TOTAL FAILURE SINCE 1880 CENSUS TO HAVE CENSUS with male CITIZENS twenty-one years of age in such State.
1870 CENSUS HAD SUCH STATS — NOT SINCE.
—
TOTAL FAILURE to update 14-2 AMDT- in 19 [female voters] and 26 [age 18 voters] Amdts.
—–
Result — pending USA Civil W-A-R II.
The sinister satanic Leftist will lose and the righteous Right wing will win.
Also – a candidate may ALWAYS become disqualified or die before election day — with no replacement on ballots.
2 USC 6 is something the northern hegemons slapped in 1872 when they could find no way to enforce 14-2. You should ask your representative Dingell Conyers Tlaib to do something about it.
“Northern hegemons”?
Well, up until this moment, I generally thought pretty highly of Riley. Waiting for him to drop the other shoe with “The War of Northern Aggression” next. That said 2 USC 6 is just the enabling legal action for what was already allowed by the 14th Amendment, as Riley notes with his 14-2 reference. Sadly, it’s not been applied, when it could have been in many, many cases.
@SG,
14-2 is not self enforcing. Congress has the sole power to apportion representatives. In 1872, they could not find a way to do so. Instead they dropped the text of 14-2 into statute knowing it was a toothless gesture.
They then added a few extra representatives to northern states beyond which there was any basis in population.
Stock character fruitfly seems unaware of the war of Yankee aggression and subsequent occupation being a great evil and injustice. Those of us whose families were robbed of our legally held property want reparations, with interest.
I remember, may have been a full decade ago, Texas Libertarians bragged about how they had a candidate for every state senate seat. Those days have long since vanished.
TX — One of the many left/right extremist TYRANT gerrymander regimes in the USA.
—
PR
APPV
TOTSOP
Gerryandered, single member districts produce a large number of uncontested legislative elections in many states
God bless President Trump
The article is in error. 55 of 150 House districts are unopposed, which is 36.7%.
Of the 150 House districts,
70 are RD contests.
33 are R uncontests.
22 are D uncontests.
12 are LDR contests
6 are LD contests.
5 are LR contests.
1 is an IRD contest.
1 is an ID contest.
The article mentions the certification by the SOS. This is relatively new due to a change in election law. About two decades ago the Texas Constitution was amended to permit an unopposed candidate to be declared elected, and left it up to the legislature to implement it.
It was implemented for local offices. If there is only one candidate, the office is left off the ballot. If there are no contested offices, the election may be cancelled. This is not uncommon in smaller cities, school districts, and MUD’s.
For general elections the certification of unopposed candidates was permissive (“may”). In 2021 this was made mandatory (“shall”). The effect of this certification by the SOS is that counties will leave the offices off their ballot, and add a list of elected candidates at the end of the ballot.
When, the straight ticket was in effect, when a voter on a voting machine selected the straight ticket option, all the candidates for that party were preselected. A voter could always override that on an individual race.
But if a party did not have a candidate for an office then there would be no preselection, and the summary would show something like “no vote”. This would confuse voters, particularly if they believed it a weakness to skip an office or didn’t want to vote for the other party.
Candidates did not want to have their name left off the ballot if they were unopposed. Voters would not notice. If a novice voter asked whether they could vote for a congressman, a veteran voter would condescendingly state that elections of representatives had been done away with years ago, and shake their head at the sad state of high school civics education.
Minority parties in an area may skip a race. Nobody wants to waste the filing fee, and the party or special interest groups are going to spend money where it is more effective. The party may believe if they actively campaign, the opposing party will campaign and drive up votes for other candidates (reverse coattails).
Besides the unopposed district candidates, county clerks will certify unopposed county and precinct offices. These collectively surpass the number of offices certified by the SOS.
36.7% vs 40% is just rounding off.
The (disputed) $750 filing fee just to be considered at the convention must have scared off some potential LP candidates for state house. Let’s hope the federal lawsuit kills it for good.
14-2 Amdt violation if write-ins are NOT allowed and NOT counted.
ROT since 1868 in NON-enforcement of 14-2.
@AZ,
Write-in votes are allowed and counted.
Planning for the 2030 Census has begun. You should forward your apportionment concerns to the Census Bureau.
@Well,
The article said 58 House races, when actual number is 55. Did you bother to check the map in the article, or the SOS certification, or the candidate listings on the SOS web site.
Well if they had got the number right then, well you could say that 36.7% is nearly 40%, and well RW use of 40% might well be accurate.
some confusion reigns –
JR wrote –
For general elections the certification of unopposed candidates was permissive (“may”). In 2021 this was made mandatory (“shall”). The effect of this certification by the SOS is that counties will leave the offices off their ballot, and add a list of elected candidates at the end of the ballot.
—-
NO office on ballot [with write-in space(s)] = direct subversion of 14-2 Amdt.
TX should immediately lose XX.X pct of USA Reps in 2023 and electoral college votes in 2024.
Inform TX media and USA Dist Attys.
All races should have one candidate who should be a Trump Republican and then we can get rid of the races and just have Trump make appointments to everything and fire people when they don’t do their job and replace them.
@AZ,
Please articulate why you believe that the 14th Amendment applies and why the executive branch should get involved in executive matters. TOTSOP.
The races must and should be kept separate. Race mixing is a deadly sin that leads to the collapse of civilizations.
14-2 specifies *** the Executive and Judicial officers of a State, or the members of the Legislature thereof ***
denied — abridged — esp for Voter write-ins.
TOTAL FAILURE to enforce 14-2 in ALL States since 1868.
NOW VIA 28 USC 1331 AND 2 USC SEC. 6
§6. Reduction of representation
Should any State deny or abridge the right of any of the male inhabitants thereof, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, to vote at any election named in the amendment to the Constitution, article 14, section 2, except for participation in the rebellion or other crime, the number of Representatives apportioned to such State shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall have to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State.
(R.S. §22.)
Codification
R.S. §22 derived from act Feb. 2, 1872, ch. 11, §6, 17 Stat. 29.
—
RELATED ROT-
TOTAL FAILURE SINCE 1880 CENSUS TO HAVE CENSUS with male CITIZENS twenty-one years of age in such State.
1870 CENSUS HAD SUCH STATS — NOT SINCE.
—
TOTAL FAILURE to update 14-2 AMDT- in 19 [female voters] and 26 [age 18 voters] Amdts.
—–
Result — pending USA Civil W-A-R II.
The sinister satanic Leftist will lose and the righteous Right wing will win.
Also – a candidate may ALWAYS become disqualified or die before election day — with no replacement on ballots.
Good idea if they are a dim leftard.
Another good idea:
▬▬▬.◙.▬▬▬
═▂▄▄▓▄▄▂
◢◤ █▀▀████▄▄▄▄◢◤
█🐸 █ █▄ ███▀▀▀▀▀▀▀╬
◥█████◤
══╩══╩═
Yes, even better.
@AZ,
Why do you believe there is an abridgement?
2 USC 6 is something the northern hegemons slapped in 1872 when they could find no way to enforce 14-2. You should ask your representative Dingell Conyers Tlaib to do something about it.
“Northern hegemons”?
Well, up until this moment, I generally thought pretty highly of Riley. Waiting for him to drop the other shoe with “The War of Northern Aggression” next. That said 2 USC 6 is just the enabling legal action for what was already allowed by the 14th Amendment, as Riley notes with his 14-2 reference. Sadly, it’s not been applied, when it could have been in many, many cases.
@SG,
14-2 is not self enforcing. Congress has the sole power to apportion representatives. In 1872, they could not find a way to do so. Instead they dropped the text of 14-2 into statute knowing it was a toothless gesture.
They then added a few extra representatives to northern states beyond which there was any basis in population.
Stock character fruitfly seems unaware of the war of Yankee aggression and subsequent occupation being a great evil and injustice. Those of us whose families were robbed of our legally held property want reparations, with interest.