Yo! Fellow Texans! Via memeorandum, here’s an interesting twist:
The Libertarians are contending that the Democratic and Republican nominees are disqualified from appearing on the ballot because they missed the state’s Aug. 26 deadline to certify candidates. During the national conventions, Mr. Obama was not voted as the nominee until Aug. 27 and Mr. McCain claimed the GOP nomination on Sept. 3.
No one can legally certify something that has not yet happened, Mr. Barr argued. In addition, Sarah Palin was not named to the GOP ticket until Aug. 29 and so it would be impossible to certify her name by the deadline.
The Libertarians claim that both major parties knew of the late conventions and did not go to either the Legislature or the courts to seek a remedy.
If the Dallas Morning News has all the facts right, then it looks to me as if the Libertarians have a valid point.
Time for an emergency legislative session. Otherwise, both campaigns will be sending out a whole new set of campaign literature in Texas, centered up on the topic of “write-in”.
Could the Republicans and Democrats both have been this stupid?
(Yes, that was rhetorical…)
Update: The Texas Supreme Court says Sorry, Bob.
The Texas Supreme Court rejected a request Tuesday by Libertarian Party presidential nominee Bob Barr to keep Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama off the Texas ballot.
The court denied the request without explanation.