Ballot-Pruning in Texas

billbradley

a href="http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/09/18/ballot-pruning-in-texas/index.html"1target="_blank"1http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/09/18/ballot-pruning-in-texas/index.htmlb,121b,121???Libertarian presidential candidate Bob Barr has filed suit that would keep voters from seeing the names Barack Obama and John McCain on their voting machines, saying they failed to follow the Texas law to get their names placed on the ballot,??? reports the Dallas Morning News.b,121b,121???The Libertarians are claiming that both the Texas Democratic and Republican parties missed the deadline to certify their presidential nominees and report them to the Texas Secretary of State.???b,121b,121Here (via Outside the Beltway) is the relevant statute:b,121b,121 192.031. PARTY CANDIDATE???S ENTITLEMENT TO PLACE ON BALLOT. A political party is entitled to have the names of its nominees for president and vice-president of the United States placed on the ballot in a presidential general election if:b,121b,121 (1) the nominees possess the qualifications for those offices prescribed by federal law;b,121b,121 (2) before 5 p.m. of the 70th day before presidential election day, the party???s state chair signs and delivers to the secretary of state a written certification of:b,121 (A) the names of the party???s nominees for president and vice-president; andb,121 (B) the names and residence addresses of presidential elector candidates nominated by the party,b,121 in a number equal to the number of presidential electors that federal law allocates to thisb,121 state; andb,121b,121 (3) the party is:b,121 (A) required or authorized by Subchapter A of Chapter 172 to make its nominations by primary election; orb,121 (B) entitled to have the names of its nominees placed on the general election ballot under Chapter 181.b,121b,121Strictly speaking, Barr seems to have a case, as neither party had held its roll-call vote by Aug. 26, the 70-day marker (the Democrats were a day late).b,121b,121???I wouldn???t bet ten cents on Barr winning this case, but it???s amusing to think what would happen if he did,??? writes Reason???s David Weigel.b,121b,121???Without Texas, McCain could get to 270 (273, actually) electoral votes if he carried all the Bush states plus New Hampshire and Michigan and Obama didn???t win Iowa. But he probably wouldn???t be without Texas. The state allows write-in votes, and in 2006 the GOP nearly won a House seat (Tom DeLay???s seat) with a write-in candidate whose name was literally too long to fit in the voting machine. It wouldn???t be tough for McCain to win the state as a write-in candidate.???