Texas Bill SB2197 Would Allow Minor Parties’ Candidates to Pay Their Filing Fees to Their Party Instead of the State

Posted on by March 28, 2025

SB2197 allows convention-nominated candidates to pay their filing fees to their political party instead of the State of Texas, which is the case with primary-nominated candidates. This change would “level the playing field,” so to speak.

The text of the bill is rather short. Here it is.

Comments

Texas Bill SB2197 Would Allow Minor Parties’ Candidates to Pay Their Filing Fees to Their Party Instead of the State — 30 Comments

  3. all state legislatures = Anti-democracy minority rule oligarchies — SINCE 1776

    1/2 or less votes x 1/2 rigged cracked/packed gerrymander districts = 1/4 or less control = OLIGARCHY
    —-
    P.R. IN ALL LEGIS BODY ELECTIONS

  6. ONLY BAN TROLL MORONS – ESP TRUMP TROLL MORONS ARE TOO EVIL MORON STUPID TO KNOW THAT P.R. IN ELECTION REFORMS MEANS ***PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION***.

    ESP TOTAL VOTES / TOTAL MEMBERS = EQUAL VOTES TO ELECT EACH MEMBER —
    VIA PRE-ELECTION CANDIDATE RCV LISTS OF ALL OTHER CANDIDATES

    === BOTH MAJORITY RULE [[[REAL DEMOCRACY]]] AND MINORITY REPRESENTATION

  8. Well I’m Donald Trump, the one they’re talking about, if you talk crap about me you’ll get punched in the mouth.

    If you disrespect me, forget about it, forget it. Best case for you is you’ll survive to regret it.

  9. Before 1904, there were no government-printed ballots in Texas. The County Judge in each county would choose men of probity to serve as the election judge in each election precinct. The election judge might choose election clerks to assist, but the election judge would would arrange a polling place and ballot box, etc. The County Sheriff could provide public order. Voters could provide their own ballot, or political parties or newspapers could provide ballots. The party ballots would only list that parties candidates, but a voter could edit that ballot.

    At the end of voting, the ballots would be tallied. The tally sheets and ballots would be locked in the ballot box and taken to the county clerk for safekeeping. The votes would then be canvassed by the commissioners court. Locally elected candidates would be notified, and the canvassed results for statewide office would be transmitted to the capital.

  11. JR

    how many olde stuffed ballot boxes in Texas ??? —

    see 1948 USA senate race – MONSTER LBJ chosen >>> Vietnam WAR 1964-1973-1975

    58,000 USA DEAD – MILLION PLUS SE ASIANS KILLED

    LATER KHMER ROUGE MASS MURDER KILLERS IN CAMBODIA

  14. I’m the Boss of all Bosses, King of all Kings. I bring the world hope, I’m why we have nice things.

  17. In 1903, the Texas legislature provided for uniform ballots. No color or other embellishments were permitted. Each party would print their own. For each office they would print the name of their candidate along with a write-in space. At the general election, a voter would be provided all the party ballots. They would choose one ballot and discard the others (similar to the pick-a-party primary in Idaho). They were free to edit the ballot if they did not want to vote a straight ticket.

    Candidates of the Democratic, Republican, Populist, Prohibition, Socialist, and Socialist Labor parties received votes for governor in 1904. I do not know which parties provided ballots. Elections in Texas have always been conducted at the county level, it is quite likely that some of the smaller parties did not provide ballots in all counties. Voters could vote for individual presidential electors (Texas had 17 electors in 1904). In some counties, no votes were recorded for the Socialist, Prohibition, etc. parties. A voter might know the name of the Prohibition candidate for governor and write it in on the Democratic ballot. They would be less likely to know the name of the 17 Prohibition candidates for elector.

    This pick-a-party system was only used in 1904.

  24. If you think bad about me, stop trusting fake media. Go to conservapedia.com and read conservapedia.

  25. In 1905, the legislature passed the Terrell Election Law which established the basic framework of Texas partisan elections is still used today (the 1905 law is sometimes conflated with the 1903 law, but they really took different approaches.

    The 1905 law established the party primary as the means by which parties whose gubernatorial candidate had more than 100,000 votes in the previous election were required to nominate by primary. Other parties could nominate by primary but never did. As a practical matter, this meant that the Democratic primary was the only primary. Each party had to pay for their own primary. Candidates would file for office with the party chair in their county. The party chair would estimate the cost of the primary, and then assess each candidate the filing fee. If they did not pay, they would be left off the ballot. The only real expense was printing ballots, which might be done by the local newspaper. Election judges and clerks might donate their time.

    On election day (all elections in Texas, except the November federal election were on a Saturday) voters would go to the Democratic polling place and vote. After voting was completed they would meet for the precinct convention where delegates to the county convention were chosen. The county convention would choose delegates to the state convention. Initially, there were no primary runoffs, and conventions could choose the nominee in case no candidate received a majority.

    On the primary election day supporters of other parties would go to primary (precinct) conventions, where they would choose delegates to county conventions. The county convention was one week later, where candidates for most offices were nominated. The county conventions would choose delegates to the state convention, where nominations for governor and other statewide offices would be made.

    From a voter perspective, voting in a primary and voting in a general election would be a similar experience. They would go to the polling place, show their poll tax receipt, be handed a ballot paper, which they would mark, and deposit in the ballot box. The results would be announced in the paper the next day. Internally, the primary was conducted by the party, while the general election was conducted by county election officials. Practically, these might be the same persons.

  26. JR

    what percent of folks in 1905 Texas dared to be republicans ???

    ANY R folks in 1905 tx legislature ???

  29. The first Republican primary in Texas was in 1926. Texas elected a governor every two years, so every other election was coincident with the presidential election. National Democratic presidential candidates were not always popular in Texas, so Republican voters would turn out to vote for the presidential electors and continue to go down the ballot and vote for the Republican candidates for governor and other statewide office.

    Texas used party column ballots, and voting was done by crossing out the name of the preferred candidate. A voter could vote a straight ticket by drawing a vertical line down the party column. At typical elections in this period, there was around 99% straight party voting for the statewide candidates.

    In addition, the Democratic gubernatorial candidate in 1924 was M.A. “Ma” Ferguson. Her husband James E. “Pa” Ferguson had been impeached and removed from office when he had been governor. Ma Ferguson said that she would rely on her husband’s advice if she were elected. After she was nominated in the 2024 primary, some Democrats crossed over to vote for the Republican. This combined with growth of the Texas population and enfranchisement of women resulted in the Republican George C. Butte exceeding the 100,000 vote threshold to require a Republican primary.

    In the 1926 Democratic primary, there were 821,234 votes cast, while in the Republican primary 15,289 votes were cast. “Democrats” outnumbered “Republicans” 54 to 1. Voters had turned out to vote out Ma Ferguson who was seeking to be renominated for governor.

    Only 268,607 voted in the general election. That is, the Democratic primary had three times as many voters as the general election. To most voters, the Democratic primary had decided the election.

    The Republican primary would have required a filing fee, but that would have been assessed in each county. Not all counties would have had a primary, and some county parties might have had the cost of the primary covered by contributions and volunteer help.

    The primaries were held in separate voting locations.

    An anecdote from Dallas related how a voter stepped into a voting booth, had her poll tax receipt stamped, and been handed a ballot. After diligently examining the ballot, she exclaimed, “Say, where’s Ma Ferguson’s name? I don’t find it on the ballot.” The Republican election judge explained that she was in a Republican voting place, and that the Democratic booth was across the street. But her poll tax receipt had already been stamped.

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