Running Late
Hilariously, if a Libertarian Party press release is correct, there will be only one candidate on the Texas ballot, and it won't be a Democrat or a Republican. I got this e-mail on Wednesday from Andrew Davis, from the Libertarian Party:

Barr Only Presidential Candidate on Texas Ballot

Republicans, Democrats miss deadline to file presidential candidates in Texas

Atlanta, GA - Bob Barr is slated to be the only presidential candidate on the ballot in Texas after Republicans and Democrats missed the Aug. 26 deadline to file in the state.

"Unless the state of Texas violates their own election laws, Congressman Barr will be the only presidential candidate on the ballot," says Russell Verney, campaign manager for the Barr Campaign and the former campaign manager for Ross Perot. "Texas law makes no exceptions for missing deadlines."

The Texas Secretary of State Web site shows only Bob Barr as the official candidate for president in Texas.

"We know all about deadlines," says Verney. "We are up against them constantly in our fight to get on the ballot across the nation. When we miss deadlines, we get no second chances. This is a great example of how unreasonable deadlines chill democracy."

"Republicans and Democrats make certain that third party candidates are held to ballot access laws, no matter how absurd or unreasonable," says Verney. "Therefore, Republicans and Democrats should be held to the same standards."

Andrew Davis then sent me this:

The state law that would make such a filing an impossibility is Texas Election Code Section 192.031, which says the following:

§ 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: (1) the nominees possess the qualifications for those offices prescribed by federal law; (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: (A) the names of the party's nominees for president and vice-president; and

Essentially, if the parties have not nominated a candidate, then it is impossible to submit a filing with the nominees name.

But, wait...then there's this, on a page for Dems and Republicans on the Texas Secretary of State's office:

If you receive a majority of the votes cast in the primary election or receive the most votes in a primary runoff election, if applicable, your name will appear on the general election ballot in November.

I sent that to Andrew with this remark:

So...unless I'm dim or something, doesn't it seem the Dem and Republican will be on the ballot automatically?

And he wrote back:

I believe that means that you do not have to qualify for party status like minor parties do, but you still must file for office. For that, the applicable election code would be section 192.031.

It's all very confusing. I've written to an expert in the area but have yet to hear back. Any legal beagles around who can clarify this?

Richard Winger, of ballot-access.org, had this to say in clarification when I wrote him and asked about this:

No state's presidential primary determines who the presidential and vice-presidential candidates will be. After all, different candidates win the primaries in different states. In 2008, in the Texas presidential primary, Hillary Clinton got the most votes, 1,459,814 to only 1,358,785 for Obama (by Obama won the Texas caucuses). Also, of course, a presidential primary doesn't settle who the v-p nominee is.

The Texas law is very clear. It is 192.031 and says, "A political party is entitled to have the names of its nominees for president and vice-president placed on the ballot if before 5 pm 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 the names of the party's nominees for president and vice-president."

The Republican National Committee went to a great deal of trouble to get laws like this in the various states amended, during 2003 and 2004 (because the party's 2004 convention was to end on September 1, the latest major party presidential convention in U.S. history at that time). Then the Republican National Committee had to do more work like that in 2007, because the party chose an even later National Convention for 2008! In other words, they had to re-do some of the lobbying they had done in 2003, because the new laws they had passed still didn't provide for late-enough deadlines. Caroline Hunter was the attorney for the Republican National Committee who supervised this work in 2003 and 2004. This year, she ended up on the Federal Election Commission. If you could reach her, you could ask her why the Republican National Committee didn't seem to notice what an odd thing the Texas legislature did in 2005. That 2005 bill, moving the deadline from 60 days before the November election to 70 days, was absolutely going in the wrong direction! And making this headache for the Republican Party.

In other words, if these state deadlines don't matter, why did the Republican national committee work so hard to get them eased?