On May 6, the Texas House Defense and Veterans Affairs Committee passed SB 100, after amending it. The amended bill moves the Texas primary (for President and all other office) from March to April. It moves the runoff primary from April to June. This has the indirect effect of moving the petition deadline for new parties from May to June, and the indirect effect of moving the petition deadline for independent candidates (for office other than President) from May to July. The legislature’s web page hasn’t posted the text of the amendments, so it isn’t clear what happens to the petition deadline for independent presidential candidates. See this story.
Hmm. I don’t know what the requirements are for petitioning to be on the TX ballot but I hear the overall requirements are some of the toughest in the US. So we will probably see just as little 3rd party and independent participation, but now TX is even less relevant in the primary process as the nominations are pretty much decided by the time they have their primary.
Texas is very difficult, but the Green Party did successfully petition onto the Texas ballot in 2010, and it got enough votes to be on automatically in 2012.
Martin,
I think you are off on your assessment. Americans Elect will be petitioning for 2012 and it will be interesting to see if they go for ‘party’ ballot access or ‘independent’ (if they can without an identified candidate by name).
Also I suspect that the Republican nomination will be a long slog battle similar to the Democrats in 2008 where Texas was a big deal with the Obama-Clinton war.
The only other party that will be around looking to qualify will be the Constitution Party which will not be able to petition onto the ballot based on their weak attempts previously.
The petition requirements for congress and the legislature are not particularly high.
Riley: Shortest petition gathering time in the country, highest total number required, ban on mall and parking lot signing, and the all-powerful total blackout of any Green party news, except for the Democrat’s SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation) suit, by the corporate media. I know some Middle Eastern countries with more party freedom than that. Are bullets and batons the only restrictions you consider “particularly high”?
#5 500 signatures for an independent candidate for Congress is not very high.
#6. But there is still the media blackout of any coverage, no party identification including platforms on search engines, etc. One party with two or three names is not democracy nor freedom of choice.
#7 Texas does not have a state-controlled media.
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