On July 23, Michael Collier, the independent candidate for Texas Lieutenant Governor who is suing over the law that requires him to collect 81,030 signatures in just thirty days, filed this reply brief.
On July 23, Michael Collier, the independent candidate for Texas Lieutenant Governor who is suing over the law that requires him to collect 81,030 signatures in just thirty days, filed this reply brief.
Would a petition with a signature quota to publish a book be unconstitutional? Then why is it constitutional for a petition quota be met for a candidate’s name to be published on bipartisan state monopoly ballot?
Instead, a write-in only voter verifiable general election ballot lets the voters choose from all candidate publishers.
Prior to Bullock v. Carter, candidates could not qualify for a primary ballot by petition (there was a petitioning process but that was only to encourage a candidate to run. If there were 25 signatures, the candidate could apply just like they could without a petition). The petition option is now available, presumably to comply with Panish. For a statewide candidate such as Collier, only 5000 signatures are required and they may be gathered over an essentially unlimited time frame. Historically signatures have been gathered as early as May of the year before an election (e.g., May 2025 for the November 2026 election).
At the time of American Party v White, there was no primary screen-out. The legislature in passing a law, noted this fact with a claim that it must be constitutional since the SCOTUS thought it was. At best the SCOTUS apprehension must be considered dicta.
If Michael Collier had sought nomination as the candidate of a new party, perhaps “Collier For Texas”, the party would have 75 days to collect 80,000 signature, and there would be not be a concern that voters might vote in the Democratic or Republican runoff. The party could have sought affiliations prior to the primary.
The Secretary of State and various county election administrators actively promoted voting in the primaries of two private political parties, thus entrapping voters in the nominating activities of those parties. The candidacies of Democratic and Republican lieutenant governor candidates were promoted on the Secretary of State website even though she was aware that Collier was also seeking that office.
A candidate for the 1st or 14th Court of Appeals requires only 500 signatures, even though those districts have one-fifth of the Texas electorate.
If a candidate were to run for Lieutenant Governor as a write-in candidate, they would only have to pay a filing fee ($3750), and they could file in August. The ballot would be modified to permit a write in. Their name would be posted in every voting booth in Texas and included in every bote-by-mail packet. What will be their excuse? Oh we hide the names, or plaster the name of the county clerk in large letters, so it is harder to vote for these candidates. But the list of the names has to be everywhere an instruction poster is posted. Do they make instruction posters hard to read?