The Libertarian Party of Pennsylvania - Forum

 http://www.bobbarr2008.com/press/press-releases/133/bob-barr-files-suit-in-texasSeptember 16, 2008 6:46 pm EST

Atlanta, GA –  Bob Barr, the Libertarian Party's nominee for president, has filed a lawsuit in Texas demanding Senators John McCain and Barack Obama be removed from the ballot after they missed the official filing deadline.
 
"The seriousness of this issue is self-evident," the lawsuit states. "The hubris of the major parties has risen to such a level that they do not believe that the election laws of the State of Texas apply to them."
 
Texas election code §192.031 requires that the “written certification” of the “party’s nominees” be delivered “before 5 p.m. of the 70th day before election day.”  Because neither candidate had been nominated by the official filing deadline, the Barr campaign argues it was impossible for the candidates to file under state law.

"Supreme Court justices should recognize that their responsibility is to apply the law as passed by the Legislature, and the law is clear that the candidates cannot be certified on the ballot if their filings are late," says Drew Shirley, a local attorney for the Barr campaign, who is also a Libertarian candidate for the Texas Supreme Court. 
 
A 2006 Texas Supreme Court decision ruled that state laws "does not allow political parties or candidates to ignore statutory deadlines."

Orrin Grover, attorney for Bob Barr and Wayne Root, said that he believes that the Texas Secretary of State is bound by Texas law to remove the Republican and Democratic nominees from the November ballot. "Either we have rules and deadlines, or we do not," Grover said.

The Chairman of the Texas Libertarian Party, Pat Dixon stated, "Libertarian principles require personal responsibility for your acts and failures. Obama and McCain failed to meet the deadlines. They must follow the law like everyone else."
 
The petition also alleges that the Democratic Party's late presidential filing falsely claimed under oath that Senator Obama had been nominated hours before the nomination actually occurred.
 
"The facts of the case are not in dispute," says Russell Verney, manager of the Barr campaign.  "Republicans and Democrats missed the deadline, but were still allowed on the ballot.  Third parties are not allowed on the ballot for missing deadlines, as was the case for our campaign in West Virginia, yet the Texas secretary of state's office believes Republicans and Democrats to be above the law."

Barr will be holding a press conference this Thursday at the Texas Supreme Court at 11:00 a.m.

Libertarian Party presidential candidate Bob Barr represented the 7th District of Georgia in the U. S. House of Representatives from 1995 to 2003.

Lawsuit Contacts:

Pat Dixon
Texas Libertarian Party
Chair@lptexas.org

Drew Shirley, Esq.
Drew Shirley, P.C.
Austin, TX
512-417-6171

Orrin Grover, Esquire
Orrin L. Grover, P.C.
Woodburn, OR
510-872-603

A great suggestion was made that the Barr Camp perhaps, "assist" getting R and Ds on the ballot in TX, thus we take the high road and when then get on, we "won" and are better than them.  Might make great conversation and press releases.

Barry,

I love ya like a brother but I couldn't disagree with you more! We stand to gain nothing from those parties. They will stab us in the back and make sure that we get no press whether we "help" them or not! To me it's like saying, "well if we help the British and Tories with keeping these oppressive laws and taxes, they'll be cool with this whole independence thing". It's time they were called out on this skirting of the law and we need to make as much noise about it as we can!

Could it be that by forcing the Ds and Rs to justify their being late to Texas, this lays the groundwork for the LP to use the same argument in Texas at some later date? 

Mark

It is unrealistic to think both major party candidates will be kept off the ballot. It also seems odd to file suit challenging deadlines in West Virginia then file suit to enforce deadlines in Texas.

Taking this stance puts the Barr campaign at odds with itself. Either it supports ballot access and flexible deadlines or it doesn't. If the Barr campaign were to support the placing of the other candidates on the ballot, it could claim victory when they were placed on the ballot.

Perhaps the Barr campaign should take a lesson from the outcome in Pennsylvania, those who try to keep others off the ballot end up looking very bad.

This whole thing is not going to end well for the Libertarian Party if McCain and Obama are left off the ballot. Mark my words.

They won't be left off the ballot.  The public outcry would be insane.  McCain and Obama WILL be on the ballot there, regardless what the law says.

The ONLY reason for doing this is an attempt to draw media attention to the double standards that exist.  If you are not a Democrat or Republican, and you cut a fart while gathering petition signatures, you're off the ballot.  If you are part of the status quo, you can do whatever you want.

Flexible deadlines are a bad idea as once you give somebody an inch they will take a mile.  If we were late in WV we should swallow the bitter pill and move on to bigger and better things.

The Suit in TX is a good opportunity to highlight the double standards that exist and discriminate unfairly against the alternative parties.  We believe in personal responsibility and holding people accountable which is what the TX suit is all about.

To Mik's point we should drop our efforts in WV if we were late with the filing.

While I still can't support Barr I do think he got it right suing the Rs & Ds in Texas. It may come to nothing if the courts decide that McBama gets to be on the ballot, law be damned. On the other hand if they're not on the ballot, while they will try to spin it to make the LP look bad, it will serve 2 purposes. One to show the Rs & Ds that we're not Nader or the Greenies. That we can play hardball too. Second, it will give us a chance to explain how hard ballot access is for third parties. This can generate sympathy for us & maybe help lower the hurdles.

Perhaps flexible deadline was a bad choice of words. Unnecessary or unreasonable deadline may be more accurate. If the deadline was reasonable to allow the administrative tasks necessary to conduct an election, then that's fine. Everyone should have the same deadline, as well. I believe in West Virginia the deadline was different for us than for the majors, as it is in Pennsylvania.

I have now reconsidered my opinion and think the Texas suit is justified as long as the deadline was reasonable, although I think there is great potential to come out of this looking like the bad guy. It seems a good case could be made that the deadline was not reasonable or necessary, much like the West Virginia deadline. Perhaps the outcome in Texas will be the same as West Virginia, but for some reason I have a feeling that won't be the case.

Mik Robertson