September 17, 2008
Barr Carries Texas!
He may be the only guy on the ballot:
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.
This complete lack of seriousness is yet another reason that this little-l libertarian will never capitalize.
Hat-tip: Samizdat Dale Amon who links approvingly. Amon has a point about ballot access, but I cannot condone this stunt.
2008 Posted by jk at September 17, 2008 3:21 PM
I'm the first to say that "the law" shouldn't necessarily be enforced, because whatever is enshrined in statute does not mean it's good, proper or just.
However, like I've said before, bad law ties down *people*, but the purpose of good law is to tie down government. This is election law that sets rules for government, and it should be followed. The SCOTUS decision in 2000 wasn't about "stealing" the election for Bush, but merely to say that it had no right to tell Florida not to follow its law about choosing electors by a certain deadline.
It's a scary thought that the McCain and Obama campaigns' foolishness could mean McCain won't get Texas' precious votes, without which we'd certainly have President Obama. People could still vote for McCain as a write-in, and I'd trust them to be smarter about that than Obama's supporters.
Posted by: Perry Eidelbus at September 18, 2008 10:36 AM | What do you think? [1]