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:Drew Shirley, Esq.
Drew Shirley, P.C.
Austin, TX
512-417-6171Orrin Grover, Esquire
Orrin L. Grover, P.C.
Woodburn, OR
510-872-603
This lawsuit, if successful, will have far-reaching effects reshaping the political landscape in Texas and the entire United States.
For starters, the publicity will introduce more people to Bob Barr and the Libertarian Party. People who have never heard of Mr. Barr or the principles of libertarianism will be interested to learn more and I believe they will like what they see and read. Witness the Ron Paul phenomenon.
It will also call into question the sanctity of the two-party system. No where in our U.S. Constitution does it provide for political parties - they have simply become an accepted way of doing business. And while I don’t want to outlaw political parties altogether, it’s about time the parties and their leaders realize the American political process belongs to the American people - not the interests of the Democratic or Republican elites. (Yes, the Republicans have elites, too!)
And Texans won’t be able to write-in Obama or McCain because Texas requires write-in candidates to be registered ahead of time as well. Talk about a lot of disenfranchised people! Of course the pundits and commentators will try to lay blame at the feet of the Libertarian Party and Bob Barr, but the blame truly belongs to the laws of Texas and the Texas legislators who enacted such laws in the first place - Democrats and Republicans who have sought to keep other political parties and true independents out of power.
Finally I see this as an exposure of the Electoral College. Each state establishes its own laws on how its electors will vote - in some states, all electors are required to vote for the winner of the popular vote, in others they vote proportionally and in some each elector may vote his or her conscience. Texas has no law requiring the electors to vote one way or another, but if Obama and McCain did not appear on the ballot here in the Lone Star State and received zero votes - how can an elector in good conscience make any claim to represent what the people want? Sure, he and his friends may like Obama, but is that who the people would have chosen? Okay, maybe they are McCain fans, but what about the folks who live on the other side of town? With the second-highest number of electors in the country - 34, after California’s 55 - can you imagine the results of all those votes going to the Libertarian candidate? Wow!
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