Nader v. Connor

332 F. Supp. 2d 982, 33 A.L.R. 6th 811, 2004 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 17983, 2004 WL 2002248
CourtDistrict Court, W.D. Texas
DecidedSeptember 1, 2004
Docket6:04-cv-00264
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 332 F. Supp. 2d 982 (Nader v. Connor) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, W.D. Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Nader v. Connor, 332 F. Supp. 2d 982, 33 A.L.R. 6th 811, 2004 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 17983, 2004 WL 2002248 (W.D. Tex. 2004).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION

YEAKEL, District Judge.

Plaintiffs Ralph Nader, an independent candidate for office of president of the United States, and three individual Texas voters and supporters of Nader for president, 1 filed suit against Defendant Geoffrey S. Connor, Secretary of State for the State of Texas (the “Secretary of State”) seeking declaratory and injunctive relief pursuant to sections 1343, 2201, and 2202 of Title 28 of the United States Code 2 and the Civil Rights Act of 1871 3 to invalidate sections 192.032(a), 192.032(b)(3)(A), 192.032(c), and 192.032(d) of the Texas Election Code, 4 as applied to Nader for the 2004 Texas general election and all subsequent general elections in Texas, as illegal and unconstitutional. Nader contends that the election code provisions violate his rights under the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution 5 and discriminate against independent presidential candidates in violation of the Civil Rights Act. 6 Nader also seeks preliminary 7 and permanent injunctions restraining, prohibiting, and enjoining the Secretary of State from enforcing, applying, or implementing the aforementioned sections of the Texas Election Code, and an order from this Court placing Nader, *984 Ms vice-presidential running mate, and his presidential electors on the Texas ballot for the general election in 2004. 8

I. The Controversy

The Texas Election Code recognizes three classifications of political parties, which the Secretary of State labels for descriptive purposes in his filings before this Court as “major,” “medium,” and “minor.” Major political parties (those whose nominee for governor received twenty percent or more of the total votes cast for governor in the most recent Texas gubernatorial general election) must nominate candidates through a statewide primary election. Tex. Eleo.CodE 'Ann. § 172.001 (West 2003). Medium political parties (those whose nominee for governor received more than two but less than twenty percent of the total votes cast for governor in the most recent Texas gubernatorial general election) may choose to nominate candidates through either a primary election or through nominating conventions. Id. § 172.002(a). In 2004 Texas’s general and presidential primary elections were held on March 9. Act of Oct. 13, 2003, 78th Leg., 3d C.S., ch. 1, § 6(a)(2), 2003 Tex. Sess. Law. Serv.3d C.S., ch. 1 (H.B.l).

Minor political parties (those receiving less than two percent of the total votes cast in the most recent Texas gubernatorial general election or having not fielded a gubernatorial candidate in such election) must nominate candidates by convention. Tex. Elec.Code Ann. § 181.003 (2003). To have its nominees placed on the ballot, a party must file with the Secretary of State lists of its precinct-convention participants totaling at least one percent of the total number of votes received by all candidates for governor in the last Texas gubernatorial general election. Id. § 181.005(a). If the political party does not secure sufficient participation at its precinct conventions to qualify to have its nominees placed on the general-election ballot, the party may qualify by filing with the Secretary of State a petition supplementing its precinct-convention participants and containing a sufficient number of signatures that, when added to the number of precinct-convention participants, equals at least one percent of the total number of votes received by all candidates for governor in the most recent gubernatorial general election. Id. § 181.006. In 2004 that number is 45,540. A minor political party must file its lists and supplemental petition not later than the seventy-fifth day after the date of its precinct conventions. Id. § 181.005(a), .006(b)(3). A party must hold its precinct conventions on the second Tuesday in March, id. § 181.061(c), the same day as the primary election. In 2004 the filing deadline was May 24, which was actually seventy-six days from March 9 due to the fact that the seventy-fifth day (May 23) fell on a Sunday.

An independent candidate, such as Nader, is not subject to a primary, nor must he be nominated through the convention process. An independent presidential candidate qualifies for placement on the ballot in Texas by filing with the Secretary of State an application and petition containing signatures equal in number to at least one percent of the total votes received in Texas by all candidates for president in the most recent presidential general election. Id. § 192.032(d). In 2004 the number of petition signatures required is 64,-076. The application and accompanying petition'must be filed with the Secretary of State not later than the second Monday in *985 May of the presidential election year. Id. § 192.032(c). In 2004 the filing deadline was May 10.

Neither a minor political party nor an independent candidate may obtain petition signatures until the day after the primary election. Id. § 181.006(j) (petition may not be circulated until after date of party’s precinct convention; signature obtained on or before that date invalid); § 192.032(g) (signature invalid if signer signs petition on or before date of presidential primary election). The signer of the petition must not have voted in the general or runoff primary election. Id. § 142.009. Signatures must meet these requirements to qualify to be counted by the Secretary of State.

These election code provisions yield the following with regard to the controversy before this Court. In 2004 an independent candidate for president was required to obtain 64,076 qualified petition signatures between March 10 and May 10, a period of sixty-two days, to obtain a place on the general-election ballot. A minor political party in 2004 was required to obtain but 45,540 qualified petition signatures between March 10 and May 24, a period of seventy-six days, to place its candidate for president on the same ballot. 9 Thus, an independent candidate is required to obtain more signatures than a minor political party, but is allowed fewer days to obtain the signatures to achieve a place on Texas’s general-election ballot.

Nader, a Connecticut resident, announced his candidacy as an independent candidate for president of the United States on February 22, 2004. He asserts that his Texas supporters collected “petition signatures totaling over 50,000” by the May 10, 2004 independent presidential-candidate deadline. However, he did not submit his petition signatures to the Secretary of State on that date.. - Instead, he turned in his petitions, containing a total of 80,044 signatures, on May 24, 2004.

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Bluebook (online)
332 F. Supp. 2d 982, 33 A.L.R. 6th 811, 2004 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 17983, 2004 WL 2002248, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/nader-v-connor-txwd-2004.