Not in Texas and not for President, anyway.
Will not be on the ballot
[Last] Monday was the deadline for independent candidates for president to get on the ballot in Texas.
Nobody showed up.
The Texas Secretary of State’s office, which administers elections, closed its doors Monday afternoon with no applications. And they would have noticed, too: Independent candidates have to submit their names along with petitions from 79,939 registered voters who, like the candidates themselves, did not take part in either the Republican or Democratic primaries.
That’s a pile of paper.
In the wake of Donald Trump’s imminent nomination as the Republican Party’s candidate for president, there has been some chatter in conservative ranks about a third-party candidate more palatable to the GOP establishment.
It’s getting late for that. The general election is in six months, and state deadlines for filing are starting to come up on the calendar.
As the story notes, a would-be independent candidate could possibly sue to get on Texas’ ballot, following the example of John Anderson in 1980. That presumes that such a candidate exists and has the wherewithal to file and successfully argue a lawsuit. And that presumes that such a candidate would want to be on the ballot in Texas, which if one is aiming to be the “not Trump alternative that unhappy conservatives can support” one probably does. (Mark Cuban has already declined to be that candidate.) Time’s a-wastin’, that’s all I’m saying. One can also file as an official write-in candidate, which is to say a write-in candidate whose votes actually get counted, but one should keep one’s expectations low if one chooses that path. The high-water mark for a write-in candidate in any Presidential race going back to 1992 is 9,159 votes in 2004 by Ralph Nader, and it’s fair to say he was better known than your average write-in would be. It was also worth 0.12% of the vote, so just a little bit short of a majority. But hey, dream big.
Beats voting for some degree of evil. JS
Can’t wait to see if any of the minor parties that filed to petition to get on the ballot actually tried and how they did.
There already will be Green, Libertarian, and Constitution Parties on the ballot in all states. Not sure if the Communist Party USA will make it on the ballot in all states though.
Bill, you are completely mistaken about ballot access for Green, Libertarian and Constitution parties ballot access around the nation. Where do you get your erroneous information.
@ Brad:
I stand corrected. It seems the LP, the Greens, and the Constitution Party are NOT on the ballot in all states. I just assumed all states were as forward thinking as Texas, since they typically appear on our ballots. I assumed wrong, and thanks for correcting that.
Bill,
I wish Texas was forward thinking.
The only reason the Greens and Libertarians have been able to keep their ballot access, after first hurdling very high petition requirements years ago, is because the Republicans and Democrats (mostly the Democrats) have not run candidates in certain statewide office elections that allow those minor parties to garner a +5% of the vote which allows them to continue their ballot access for another election cycle or two.
I believe that this election cycle the Reps and Dems have run a full slate of candidates so those parties may be at risk for losing ballot access.
The Republicans’ complete control of statewide offices for a quarter century and Texas’ top statewide election official, the Secretary of State (Republican), are no friends of expanding ballot access and they are certainly not forward thinking.