How Texas’ new ballot law might limit the choices you see on Election Day
This is Jessica Pallett’s third try running as a Libertarian candidate to unseat Republican incumbent Rep. Tony Tinderholt and represent House District 94. But if you looked at the Texas Secretary of State’s website, you wouldn’t know it.
That’s because new requirements for third party candidates to get on the ballot have left a trail of confusion in their wake. A new law put the changes into effect in September, but they have been hindered by lawsuits challenging the provisions.
And that includes displaying the names of third party candidates who have submitted paperwork seeking their party’s nomination and hope to offer voters more choices come November.
It’s a question state lawmakers had for the Secretary of State’s Office at a House Elections Committee hearing last week. Lawmakers wondered why they couldn’t find a list of third party candidates online — while Democratic and Republican ones are displayed.
“It’s not posted on advice of counsel,” Keith Ingram, the director of elections for the Secretary of State’s Office, said at the hearing.
Ingram said he could provide the list to lawmakers who asked, and vowed that third party candidates would be included in a later list of nominees for the November general election.
While their Democratic and Republican counterparts gear up for the March 3 primary, some third party candidates are unsure if they’re even still eligible to run amid the confusion. And for Pallett, the damage is already done.
“It’s going to affect my ability to get the word out,” Pallett said. “By this time over my last two campaigns, I would have received 50 or 60 surveys by now. I would have received my invitation to update my info on vote.org. And I have received nothing.”
New law faces roadblocks
The requirements lowered the threshold for minor parties, like the Green Party or Libertarian Party, to gain access to the general election ballot. But the second major change House Bill 2504 instituted may have set third party candidates back in other ways.
In order to qualify for the general election ballot, third party candidates now must either pay a filing fee — which can be as high as $5,000 depending on the office sought — or submit a petition of eligible signatures — which can be as many as 5,000 for statewide office and can’t be from voters who plan to vote in either the Democratic or Republican primary.
Filing fees collected from Democratic and Republican candidates help cover costs to run taxpayer-funded primary elections. But minor parties say the new fees imposed on their candidates are burdensome and unfair, because Texas’ Libertarian and Green parties choose their nominees through conventions funded entirely by the parties themselves.
Lawsuits followed in an attempt to stop the new filing fee and signature requirements. And just a week before the December filing deadline, a Harris County judge temporarily blocked the Secretary of State’s Office from collecting the new fees or rejecting applications that didn’t submit one. But after the Secretary of State’s Office appealed the case, the fees were reinstated.
“I filed to run. I did not pay fees. I have an email from the Secretary of State that says I’m on the ballot,” said Bill Kelsey, a Libertarian candidate running for the U.S. House to represent Texas’ 25th Congressional District. “Now, maybe I’ll be removed from the ballot. Maybe I’ll receive a bill for a fee. More confusion.”
For many third party candidates, gathering enough signatures before the Dec. 9 deadline simply wasn’t a feasible option — because of the cost and the short window to complete the task in.
“The only way that anybody’s ever able to do it is to hire professionals, and they charge several dollars per signature,” said Oliver Hall, an attorney with the Center for Competitive Democracy, a group that works to increase electoral competition. Hall is representing plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the state that challenges the requirements for third party candidates.
Without the necessary signatures, paying the filing fee was candidates’ only other option. And the $750 filing fee to run for the Texas House almost prevented some third party candidates in Tarrant County from being able to file.
That’s where Wes Benedict comes in. The former executive director of the Libertarian National Committee and Libertarian Party of Texas, Benedict co-founded the Libertarian Booster Political Action Committee. And while the PAC has helped support Libertarian candidates in Texas since 2012, this year it spent $10,250 to pay for candidates’ filing fees — including three in Tarrant County races.
“I want to send a message to Republicans that when you mess with Libertarians, we’re going to retaliate. And when you mess with voter choices, we’re going to give them a choice anyway,” said Benedict, who thinks the fees should be eliminated or at least allowed to be paid at a later date.
In Tarrant County, the PAC covered the fees of the Libertarian candidates running to represent House Districts 92, 94 and 96 — three seats that Democrats are also targeting in 2020.
“I would not have been on the ballot if it wasn’t for the PAC,” Pallett, who is running for District 94, said. “Because trying as hard as I may, it’s hard to raise money.”
Brody Mullgian, a Green Party candidate running to replace outgoing Republican Rep. Jonathan Stickland in House District 92, covered the $750 filing fee through his own funds and campaign donations. But it took a toll, requiring him to rethink his campaign budget.
“I’m an educator,” Mulligan said. “So I’m not independently wealthy. And in addition, every cent that you have to get is a cent that you have to balance spending in order to get more income.”
The new requirements have been an added burden on third party candidates who know they already face an uphill battle. Chris Hibbard, a Libertarian candidate for House District 92, pointed to the fact that there’s thousands of potential voters in his district who simply haven’t shown up to the polls in previous elections.
“And I know they definitely don’t know I exist,” said Hibbard, who was recruited to run by the Libertarian Booster PAC. “If they knew about us before then, their minds might change.”
Nelson Range, a Libertarian running for House District 96 who was also helped by the PAC, said it’s “coercion against the voter.”
While it’s “a stacked deck” against third party candidates, more barriers to get on the ballot ultimately means less options for voters to choose from, said Rod Wingo, a perennial Libertarian candidate in Tarrant County who is running to represent House District 97. With all the confusion surrounding this year’s process, Wingo said he didn’t submit the necessary filing fee in December.
“The more people that participate in elections and voting, the better off the general public will be because they can hear a lot of different opinions,” Wingo said.
Fighting for access
Who do the changes hurt the most? Well, it depends on who you ask.
The Texas Democratic Party raised concerns last spring that the bill was an attempt to boost Republicans by siphoning votes away from the Democratic Party.
Previously, a party could guarantee its spot on the general election ballot if one of its candidates for statewide office received at least 5% of the vote in the previous election cycle — a minimum the Libertarian Party of Texas has routinely met. The bill, authored by Rep. Drew Springer, a Republican from Muenster, lowered that threshold to 2% of the votes for a statewide race in the previous five election cycles.
That change allowed the Green Party of Texas to automatically get back on the ballot since Martina Salinas, the party’s 2016 candidate for Railroad Commissioner, secured nearly 3.3% of the vote that year.
Glen Maxey, the Texas Democratic Party’s primary director, said Republicans cherry-picked how to lower the vote threshold in order to grant the Green Party access — and ultimately hurt the Democratic Party’s chances.
“There’s no reason to put lipstick on this pig,” Maxey said. “In Collin County or Denton County, if a state legislative race has a Democrat and a Republican and it’s going to be decided by a couple hundred votes, having a Libertarian or a Green Party candidate on that ballot in the state rep race is going to affect the outcome in the election.”
Janis Richards, a co-chair for the Green Party of Texas, disagreed that her party draws voters away from Democrats, pointing to the fact that Democrats haven’t held a statewide office since 1998.
“If Democrats think that the Green Party is the reason they lose, they would be lying to say that,” Richards said. “I don’t think they’re entitled to a single vote that they don’t earn. And if they earn a vote, then they’ll get it.”
The bill passed primarily on party lines. Springer, the bill author, did not immediately return a request for comment.
“It seems clear the intent was to make it harder for Libertarians to get on the ballot. And I think Republicans are worried about losing majority control in Texas,” Benedict said.
But both the Libertarian and Green parties of Texas know that in 2020, it will be unlikely that their candidates are successful. Richards said this year is more of “a dress rehearsal trial run.”
Despite the confusion and new barriers, third party candidates still plan to plow forward with their campaigns, in hopes of offering voters more choices in a system that they feel favors the two parties in power.
“The state is guaranteeing ballot access for the two oldest political parties — the ones who, not coincidentally, are writing and enacting these rules. The inequity imposed by this statutory scheme is demonstrable,” Hall said. “We’re looking forward to having our day in court.”
This story was originally published January 31, 2020 at 2:25 PM.
