GOP seeks to strike 41 Libertarians from Texas ballot

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.



https://www.statesman.com/news/20200901/gop-seeks-to-strike-41-libertarians-from-texas-ballot