GOP seeks to strike 41 Libertarians from Texas ballot | Austin American-Statesman - Chuck Lindell:
September 1, 2020 - "Republican candidates and organizations are asking the Texas Supreme Court to remove 41 members of the Libertarian Party from the November ballots. All of the Libertarians are ineligible to run, the GOP argues, because they failed to pay a newly created candidate filing fee or collect the necessary petition signatures to avoid the fee. But the Libertarian Party argues that the GOP, which could have challenged the candidates in December, waited too long to seek a court remedy.
"'In the midst of pandemic, with life in general taking longer and facing more complications than usual, this Court should not exacerbate the problem by ordering counties across the state to stop preparing ballots so (the GOP) can strip Texas voters of their rights to vote for their chosen candidates,' the party’s leaders told the Supreme Court in a Tuesday filing.
"The GOP’s legal challenge is similar to a successful attempt two weeks ago by Democrats to remove three Green Party candidates for the same reason. The Republicans, however, filed their first court challenges after the Aug. 21 deadline to declare candidates ineligible, prompting the Austin-based 3rd Court of Appeals to dismiss three petitions as moot.
"So the GOP organizations and candidates, including four congressmen from Central Texas and the Travis County Republican Party, turned to the Texas Supreme Court, arguing that the 2019 state law that extended the fees to minor parties 'is less than crystal clear' on how to challenge candidate eligibility. The Republicans argued that they 'fell in the trap' of challenging the eligibility of candidates, too late as it turned out, when they should have challenged the candidate applications as improper under a different section of the state’s election laws.
"Removing candidates based on improper applications can take place any time before Sept. 18, when ballots are mailed to members of the military serving overseas, the Republicans told the Texas Supreme Court. Practically, however, the party acknowledged that the Texas secretary of state’s office has been arranging to print and distribute those ballots since Aug. 28, and its petition urged the Supreme Court to act as quickly as possible.....
"Libertarian Party ... officials urged the court to avoid a rushed decision over a filing fee that many Libertarians see as an unconstitutional poll tax — particularly with two court challenges underway. In the first, a state lawsuit filed by current and former party candidates in Harris County led to a court order blocking the fee as unconstitutional, though the ruling was halted by an appeals court that has yet to decide the case. The second involves a federal lawsuit by the party and several of its candidates that is set for trial next year....
"All nine members of the Texas Supreme Court are Republicans, including two who are opposed by Libertarian candidates who have been challenged in the GOP petition — Chief Justice Nathan Hecht and Justice Jeff Boyd."
Read more: https://www.statesman.com/news/20200901/gop-seeks-to-strike-41-libertarians-from-texas-ballot
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