On September 16, a Texas state trial court ruled that independent legislative candidate Linda Curtis should remain on the ballot. She had been challenged by her Republican opponent. Gerdes v Scott, Travis County District Court, D-1-GN-22-3841.
Texas independent candidate petition sheets require information about the name of the candidate to be repeated several times. Some of Curtis’ petition sheets didn’t fill out all the blanks, but each petition sheet had the needed information in at least one place. The court order says the petition is valid. Furthermore, the order says the challenge was filed too late. Thanks to Jim Riley for this news.
The case was filed against John Scott the Secretary of State with Linda Curtis as the real party in interest. The lawsuit claimed that Scott should have rejected the petition. The Division of Elections had noted the “deficiencies” They had determined that they were immaterial. Most of the defense argument was by the Secretary of States Attorney. When Curtis’s attorney had his turn he basically said “me too”. He added Curtis’s campaign pamphlet that specifically told signers that they could not sign the petition if they had voted in one of the primaries or were not registered to vote which were the disqualifications expressed in gobbledygook in the statement.