Texas holds a special election on November 4 to fill the vacancy in the 18th U.S. House district. Sixteen candidates are on the ballot. Candidates need either a filing fee of $3,125, or 500 signatures to get on the ballot in Texas. Here is the candidate list.
There are no party nominees. Seven Democrats, five Republicans, two independents, one Green, and one American Solidarity candidate are on the ballot (she is Reyna Anderson, and her ballot label is “independent.”) If no one gets 50% there will be a run-off.
On the same day, Texas is holding a special election to fill the vacancy in the Ninth State Senate district. That race has two Republicans and a Democrat.
CANDIDATE/INCUMBENT REPLACEMENT LISTS >>>
NOOOO MORE LEGIS SPEC ELECTIONS
The filling fee of $3125 is required (or a petition with 500 signatures).
Thank you, Jim.
In the 1961 Texas Special election to replace LBJ as US Senator there were 71 candidates. The filing fee was $50 ($524 in 2024 dollars). Newspapers would announce new candidates. As the numbers mounted there would be headlines like: “41, 42, 43” with an article that simply listed candidates: “Thomas ‘Bubba’ Jones, Detroit; …”. Detroit is in Red River County between Texarkana and Paris.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1961_United_States_Senate_special_election_in_Texas
ANY PICS OF OLDE PAPER BALLOTS ???
HOW MANY OVER-VOTES ??? VOTED FOR 2 OR MORE ???
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detroit,_Texas
LIKE DETROIT, MI — DETROIT, TX HAS SEEN BETTER OLDE DAYS
@AZ, At that time in Texas, voters would strike off the name of candidates you did not want. So a voter would have to cross out the names of 70 candidates you did not want. In the 1960 presidential election, some voters failed to cross off the names of the Constitution and Prohibition candidates, and at least some locations were counted as over-votes. In other cases, they were apparently counted based on the major parties (a crossed out Nixon counted as a vote for Kennedy, a crossed out Kennedy counted as a vote for Nixon.
Some counties randomized the candidate list, while others used alphabetical order (Allen to Zertuche). Ballots also included the county of residence. Liberty County had Mrs. Martha Tredway of Grayson County at the top of the first column, and Joyce J. Bradshaw of Dimmit County at the bottom of a second column. Taylor County used a 5-1/2 inch by 17 inch ballot with a single column.
J.R. —
THE OLDE NEGATIVE CROSS OUT STUFF — FROM OLDE COMMIE SYSTEMS ???
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WHEN DID THE TX REGIME GET SANE RE VOTING ??? —-
ONE *POSITIVE* X FOR ONE CANDIDATE FOR COUNTING VOTES.
@AZ,
It likely evolved from when private ballots were used. A voter could take a ballot from a party and edit it, crossing out candidates he did not want, and writing in the name of another candidate. Texas may have gone back and forth. In the 1952 election when Allan Shivers and other statewide candidates ran as both Republicans and Democrats, voters could draw a vertical line down a party column to select all the candidates. Eisenhower/Nixon was running against Stevenson/Sparkman. Shivers was at odds with the national Democrats because Truman was trying to steal Texas oil. He was concerned that voters for Eisenhower might draw a vertical line down the Republican column, so he arranged for the Republican state convention to nominate him and the other Democrat candidates for state office. “Republican” Shivers received enough votes to require the Republicans to nominate by primary in 1954 for the first time since 1934.
In the 1961 special election the issue of crossing out all the opponents was commented on in editorials and newspaper columns. Will Wilson who was both a candidate and Attorney General wrote an advisory opinion on the issue:
https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/sites/default/files/opinion-files/opinion/1961/ww-1021.pdf
I have no idea why the examples left James Monroe out. Andrew Jackson would be a popular choice for Texas. Sam Houston was a protege of Jackson.
Voting machines (at least in Harris County) handle long lists of candidates in an interesting way. The voter is presented with the first page (using a touch screen). They might vote for one, and then select NEXT to go to the next race. But the machines are programmed to not let you do that. Instead you have to make a selection to see the next page of names. But if you select a name on the second page, it deselects a candidate that you might have selected on the first page. You can then select NEXT. Some voters might not realize there is a long list of candidates.
But you’ve got to have White Power!