Texas Supreme Court rules 3 Green Party candidates should be added back to November ballot

by Alexa Ura and Patrick Svitek, Texas Tribune


Days before the deadline to mail ballots to overseas and military voters, the Texas Supreme Court ordered three Green Party candidates to be restored to the November ballot after Democrats had successfully sued to remove them.

The ruling, one of two issued by the Supreme Court on Tuesday that affects mail-in voting procedures, will lead to a scramble at county elections offices. The offices must now update their overseas and military ballots by the Saturday mailing deadline and send new corrected ballots to replace any that had already been mailed.

Last month, a state appeals court last month sided with the Democrats, who were seeking to kick the candidates off the ballot because they had not paid filing fees. The three candidates are David Collins for U.S. Senate, Katija “Kat” Gruene for Railroad Commission and Tom Wakely for the 21st Congressional District.

The Texas Green Party appealed the decision to the state Supreme Court, which ruled Tuesday that the secretary of state “shall immediately take all necessary actions to ensure these candidates appear on the” November ballot. The Supreme Court did not give its rationale, but said a full opinion was forthcoming.

Read more: https://www.texastribune.org/2020/09/15/texas-supreme-court-green-party-ballot/