Although that it seems undisputed that both the Republican and Democratic Parties missed the August 26 Texas deadline for filing a certificate naming their presidential and vice-presidential nominees, there are two Texas Supreme Court decisions that say that candidates should not suffer the loss of ballot access due to the mistakes of state party officials. The cases are Davis v Taylor, 930 SW 2d 581, and Bird v Rothstein, 930 SW 2d 586. The first case put a Republican nominee for State Court of Appeals Justice on the November ballot; the second one put a Democratic nominee for state house on the November ballot.

Texas parties play a big role in Texas primary elections. Candidates running for a party nomination file declarations of candidacy with their party, not with any county or state official. Therefore, party officials have serious responsibilities for certifying various kinds of paperwork, and sometimes they make mistakes.

Given the Davis and Bird precedents, it seems plausible that Texas cannot enforce its law that requires unqualified parties to file a notice with the Secretary of State on January 2 of any election year, that it intends to petition later that year. The responsibility to file such a form rests with party officers. If they fail to file the form, but the party later submits a petition and nominates candidates, the candidates ought to be able to use the Davis and Bird precedents, along with any precedent created this year to help John McCain and Barack Obama, to avoid suffering any consequences for the failure to file the form. This policy also raises equal protection problems for the state, relative to independent candidates. In 2004, Ralph Nader submitted his independent presidential petition two weeks late. He submitted it on the more lenient deadline for minor party petitions, but the federal courts upheld the earlier deadline and kept Nader off the ballot.

Sarah Palin is a registered Republican. Her husband and her oldest son are also registered voters in Alaska, yet not registered members of any political party. Thanks to Bill Van Allen for this news.

The first major party to nominate a woman for vice-president was the Democratic Party, in 1984. Now, in 2008, the Republican Party is also about to name a woman vice-presidential nominee.

The first major party to nominate a black for president or vice-president is the Democratic Party in 2008.

On the matter of diversity for presidential and vice-presidential nominees, the major parties are decades behind minor parties. The first minor party to name a woman for vice-president, and to actually receive valid votes, was the Prohibition Party in 1924. It named Marie Brehm for vice-president. The first minor party to name a woman for president, and to actually receive valid votes, was the Communist Party. It named Charlene Mitchell in 1968.

The first minor party to name a black for either president or vice-president, and to actually receive valid votes, was the Communist Party in 1932. It names James Ford for vice-president. The first minor party to name a black for president was the Socialist Workers Party, which nominated Clifton DeBerry in 1964.

Many have asserted that the Equal Rights Party of the late 19th century was the first minor party to set these records. But the Equal Rights Party did not actually nominate any candidates for presidential elector and then print up ballots naming those candidates for presidential elector. The party was free to do that, but did not do that. Svend Petersen, author of A Statistical History of the American Presidential Elections, meticulously went through the records of the vote for presidential electors, sent in by each state to the National Archives. He found records for minor party tickets that polled as few votes as 72 votes in the entire nation. That was the national vote total for Gerrit Smith, the 1852 presidential nominee of the Liberty Party. But he found no votes for an Equal Rights ticket in either the 1870’s or the 1880’s. Other researchers came to the same conclusion.