UPDATE: See PDiddie's comment below. Rep. Middleton has withdrawn HB 4416 from the current session, but she may reintroduce it in 2021 if re-elected next November. Still, we'll leave this entry up as a reminder of the obstacles that minor parties still face in Texas.
*****
No, that headline is not an exaggeration. The Republicans attack with vote suppression; the Democrats with limiting ballot access. Oddly enough, the author of the democracy-killing mini-bill we're discussing today is Geanie Morrison, an 11-term Republican from Victoria.
One silver lining to this unemployment is that it's easier to call legislators' offices during business hours. I seldom make those calls, preferring to work by email or through one of the "clicktivism" mailing lists I'm on. Today, I called my state representative, Shawn Thierry of HD146, to express my strong opposition to House Bill 4416. If you're neither D nor R, I advise you to do the same ASAP; the session ends in three weeks.
Here is where you can look up your representative's contact information.
The text of HB 4416 is short and not-so-sweet:
*****
No, that headline is not an exaggeration. The Republicans attack with vote suppression; the Democrats with limiting ballot access. Oddly enough, the author of the democracy-killing mini-bill we're discussing today is Geanie Morrison, an 11-term Republican from Victoria.
One silver lining to this unemployment is that it's easier to call legislators' offices during business hours. I seldom make those calls, preferring to work by email or through one of the "clicktivism" mailing lists I'm on. Today, I called my state representative, Shawn Thierry of HD146, to express my strong opposition to House Bill 4416. If you're neither D nor R, I advise you to do the same ASAP; the session ends in three weeks.
Here is where you can look up your representative's contact information.
The text of HB 4416 is short and not-so-sweet:
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to the qualifications necessary for a political party to
have the names of its nominees placed on the ballot.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Section 181.005(b), Election Code, is amended to
read as follows:
(b) A political party is entitled to have the names of its
nominees placed on the ballot, without qualifying under Subsection
(a), in each subsequent general election following a general
election in which the party had a nominee for a statewide office who
received a number of votes equal to at least 10 [formerly five] percent of
the total number of votes received by all candidates for that
office.
SECTION 2. This Act takes effect September 1, 2019.
It does not amend Subsection (a), which stipulates that, in order to get on the ballot in the first place, convention parties like the Greens and Libertarians must submit a list of precinct convention attendees totaling 1% of the vote-count in the last gubernatorial election. They hardly need to modify Subsection (a), since the number of votes cast governor jumped from 4.7 million in 2014 to more that 8.3 million in 2018.
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