Why aren't the Greens on the ballot so we can vote for them in Texas??? Well, due to Texas laws we have to obtain almost 45k valid signatures just to show up on the ballots and we have only 75 days to collect them. But the real hurdle is much higher because many signatures will be deemed invalid due to information not matching the voting rolls or due to the "primary screen-out prevision".

We did obtain ballot access for the first time in 2000 but failed to retain it because none of our Statewide candidates achieved more than 5% of the vote. Obtaining ballot access in this state is so difficult that since 2004 all parties or candidates who achieved ballot access are believed to have spent more than $100k in doing so. Carol Keaton-Strayhorn is rumored to have spent more than $500,000.

Please find here a short summary of our history to obtain ballot access -

04/04/2007 - Testified at 80th Legislature Elections Committee for our jointly authored bill with Dem. Representative Mark Strama on HB 2280. This bill would remove the "primary screen-out" provision which prevents voters from voting in the Rep. or Dem. primaries or participating in their conventions and also signing our petition to get on the ballot. The bill was left pending in committee because of Dem. and Rep. opposition.
Please click here to see the video.
at 1:35:00 forwarded from the start. You have to download realplayer to see this. Download it here.
Click on the Get Realplayer free under the Basic Player tab.
http://www.legis.state.tx.us/tlodocs/80R/billtext/html/HB02280I.HTM
"Common Ground" Primary Screen-Out Repeal

04/04/2007 - Testified at the same Committee mtg. as above against HB 3118. In its initial form it would have made party affirmation by voter registration possible but sadly it also proposes to use that affiliation to restrict a citizens ability to sign a petition for ballot access to someone for another party or independent. This bill has already been thrown out in Federal courts in other states. We worked on a supplement re-write to it which would allow all parties able to get a small number of signatures for access to the registration card, access to the ballot if they obtain a certain percentage or number of affirmations. It was also left pending in committee. Our testimony starts in the same video at 3:46:00.

http://www.legis.state.tx.us/tlodocs/80R/billtext/html/HB03118I.HTM
Registration By Party - Authored by Leo Berman - C; Hse. Elect. Cmte.

Please find our letter to the Committee regarding these testimonies below.

Dear Chairmen and Members of the Elections Committee -

On behalf of the Green Party of Texas, we would like to thank you for hearing HB2280. We greatly appreciate having the opportunity to illustrate why it will afford Texans a choice at the polls while eliminating the confusion and hesitation on participating in the Republican and Democratic primaries.

I would like to add for your consideration that we live in the last remaining state to maintain such a restriction on voters and parties. I should have noted that none of the eight states which have deemed it unconstitutional for parties since the 1970's have found its removal to be so problematic that it needed to be reinstated. And, the bill as it is currently written, does not impact the primary screen-out restrictions on independent candidates, just parties seeking ballot access.

Since a party which needs to petition for ballot access is required to have its nominating conventions in June, signers of the petition cannot reasonably be sure who the party will be running in a particular race when they sign the petition in the spring. One could argue that if only one candidate was seeking nomination per race, then it could be known but it is not a foregone conclusion that the party needs to nominate them. I hope the above will properly illustrate the just differentiation between parties and independents with regards to the perceived double voting in primaries that was of significant concern by the committee.

The Green, Libertarian, and Constitution Parties jointly decided that attempting to change the more fundamental issues regarding ballot access and voter choice for third parties was not prudent for us since prior efforts to lessen Texas' reputation as one of the most difficult states to obtain ballot access were not successful in the past. We respectfully wanted to exercise the legislative system to an extent that our combined efforts might bear fruit for Texans. We see this bill as a benefit to all except -- the independent candidates. Given that our parties were hoping to provide more choice to Texan's we thought the bill did cover independents but Patrick Dixon, the Libertarian chair, was told on the day of the hearing by the SOS that HB2280's present form does not cover primary screen-out for independents. We apologize if we did not make this distinction apparent enough during testimony.

We respectfully request your support of HB2280 and its placement on the calendar for a house vote. I will be on business travel with my "day" job as a semiconductor chip R&D engineer from Sunday to Wednesday but look forward to our further correspondence and dialog as to how we can improve voter involvement, solve primary elections concerns, and greatly lessen the complexity and cost of our current ballot access legislation for all Texans. As a Committee, one and all, your commitment to this genre of improvements was quite evident during HB3118 and is duly commendable. We are preparing a statement on our HB3118 testimony and hope to have it to you in the coming days.

Please feel free to email or call Kat Swift or myself with any questions you might have.

Most Sincerely,
Douglas M. Reber, PhD.
Co-Chair, Green Party of Texas
Doug_Reber@yahoo.com

************************************************************************
Green Party of Texas
http://www.txgreens.org
************************************************************************