I engaged jbjd a in the thread at OCT over her misreading of the Texas election laws. She is trying to apply a paragraph from Section 192 for general elections that requires that candidates for federal offices be qualified to hold those offices to the requirement that the political parties submit rules for apportioning delegates and placing names on the ballot for the presidential preference primary.
Here is what I posted:
Reality Check wrote:
@ jbjd
Your article is wrong. You quote the portion from Title 11, Section 192 for the general election and then you say
jbjd wrote:
But who determines whether the nominee for President is Constitutionally eligible for the job?
The state chair of each political party holding a Presidential primary election shall certify the name of each Presidential candidate who qualifies for a place on the Presidential primary election ballot and deliver the certification to the Secretary of State. §191.003 NOTICE OF CANDIDATES TO SECRETARY OF STATE
The “rules” are defined in Section 191.008: “Sec. 191.008. I
"IMPLEMENTATION BY PARTY. (a) The state executive committee of each political party holding a presidential primary election shall adopt the
rules necessary to implement this subchapter unless the rules already exist.”
(emphasis added)
This subchapter” is titled
SUBCHAPTER A. PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARY ELECTION. There is no requirement that the parties supply any rules or procedures for ensuring candidates are qualified for a federal office. They just have to submit to the SoS a statement that they are qualified to be placed on the general election ballot. They do not have to tell anyone how they arrived at that conclusion. I am sure Texas has a challenge process like most other states where the burden of proof is on the objector.
So you are mixing the two requirements and in a very deceptive way. The fact that according to your research the chair of the TDP listed all the primary candidates for the presidential primary as well as down ticket candidates in 2008 on one form is completely irrelevant.
She replied:
jbjd wrote:
Yes, of course, as anyone reading TX law could ascertain; there is no requirement that Presidential candidates must be federally qualified to appear on the primary ballot, but only to appear on the general election ballot. Indeed, that is precisely why I wrote these lines in my article:
Quote:
Lo and behold, we found no such rules. For either party. For the years 2008 – 2012. This means, neither party could possibly have submitted the rules required under 191.003 to the SoS. And, under 192.031, this means neither party is entitled to have the names of its Presidential and Vice Presidential nominees on the general election ballot. It’s as simple as that.
Of course, just because both the TDP and the RPT have lost entitlement to have the names of their nominees for President and Vice President on the general election ballot doesn’t mean that SoS Andrade cannot exercise her discretion to place those names on that ballot or, on the primary ballot, anyway. But she should not. And here’s why.
I suggested the SoS could use her discretion with the primary ballot, too, based on the logical conclusion, if a candidate for President (or Vice President) cannot be federally qualified to appear on the general election ballot then…
So I assumed she had admitted her mistake.
Reality Check wrote:
If I understand correctly you now admit that the “federally qualified” wording in the statute only applies to general election for president and vice president. You said exactly the opposite in your article: “On the other hand, 191.003, printed above, requires the chair to submit only the names of candidates federally qualified for the job. And 191.008 requires the party to adopt rules to ensure the section’s implementation.” However, now that you know you were wrong you want SoS Hope Andrade to make up such a requirement and remove the party candidates from the primary ballot? Do you realize how fast an application for an injunction would be filed in Texas and/or federal courts if she did such a stupid thing?
Then she replied with this word salad:
jbjd wrote:
No; you don’t understand, at all. I do not “now” admit anything; on the contrary, I always maintained the fact in question, as evidenced by the quote I ported here, from the article on my blog, which article was posted 3 days ago! You merely misrepresented here, what I had written there and, on the basis of that misrepresentation, called me “deceptive.” Thus, I am not “now” admitting to the fact which I had posted 3 days ago. Instead, I am merely confirming, for the benefit of readers here who have only your charges against me on which to base their opinions of my work; that, all along, as you “now” know, I had printed the truth.
Now she has a new post up on her blog that the Republican party in Texas supplied a Texas voter with their response to an information request on their rules.
GOOD THING the REPUBLICAN PARTY of TEXAS READS the “jbjd” BLOG jbjd is all giggly because Jesse Lewis, the executive director of the RPT said he actually read her blog. He discovered they had sent their reply to the wrong email address twice. The RPT supplied a copy of the candidate application and it contains an affirmation that the candidate meets the constitutional requirements for the office desired. However for jbjd this is still not good enough. She says:
jbjd wrote:
So, yes, both the TDP and the RPT filed ‘rules’ with the SoS by deadlines created either in the statute or through the court order(s). But neither party preserved its entitlement to the ballot by filing a rule that spelled out how it would determine conclusively so as to certify to the Sos; both the Presidential and Vice Presidential candidates are federally qualified for the job.
However, at the beginning of the article the only candidate she thinks should be off the ballot is, you guessed it, Barack Obama.
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