TOTAL INFORMATION ANALYSIS

Sunday, September 07, 2008

A message from the Bob Barr 2008 campaign Sept. 5:

"[...] Last night, I received a response from the Texas Secretary of State's office to my request for the certification papers submitted by the Texas Republicans and Democrats that would place Barack Obama, John McCain and their running mates on the ballot.

Their certification papers were due to the state on August 26th at 5 pm.

The law is explicit on the matter. The names of the candidates for president and vice president are due by the deadline.

After reviewing the documents, it is clear that both the Republican and Democrat presidential tickets missed the deadlines and, according to Texas state law, should not be on the ballot in Texas.

If you want to see for yourself and download the documents, click here.

Regardless of McCain and Obama's failure to meet the statutory deadline, the Texas Secretary of State seems poised to certify the ballot with their names on it. They've even updated their official candidate listing to include McCain/Palin and Obama/Biden after we first made this public (and John McCain announced Palin as his running mate).

While Republicans and Democrats look to easily slide by in Texas regardless of the law, in both West Virginia and Maine, we are facing an opposite set of circumstances.
[...]
It's been clear that if you are running for office as a Republican or a Democrat, you are somehow above the law.

If you are a Libertarian or independent, you not only have to abide by the letter of the law but you have to be prepared when the law is twisted and turned to be used against you.

[...] Last night, our campaign manager, Russell Verney, submitted a very clear letter to the Texas Secretary of State.

In the letter, Russ stated:

The Democratic Party, and Mr. Obama and the Republican Party and Mr. McCain blatantly ignored the Texas statutory deadline.

Therefore, the Libertarian candidate for president, Bob Barr, as represented by his principal campaign committee, Bob Barr 2008, demands that your office keep the names of Barack Obama, Joe Biden, John McCain and Sarah Palin off the Texas general election ballot.

Failure of the Secretary of State to comply with Texas law will result in serious legal consequences.

In the event that the Secretary of State's office in Texas does not comply with its own law, we are prepared to file suit, however this battle will just be the beginning.

On top of the additional and large legal expenses that we are likely to incur, we are going to have to divert campaign resources to deal with the media that is just starting to carry this story . . . but not in a positive manner.

Here's the New York Times this morning painting Bob Barr as a troublemaker, interfering with the election and even the economy:

What would happen if Mr. Barr prevailed? It is very hard to see how Senator McCain could get 270 electoral votes without getting the 34 from Texas. Could we end up with a messier election than we had in 2000?

Would the Supreme Court again get to pick the man who will pick the court's members? Would all this thoroughly alarm foreign investors, whose sales could damage stock and bond prices while the fight was on?

No, it won't happen. At least we can hope it won't.

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Labels: bob barr, mccain, obama

| Posted at 14:45 | PERMA-LINK |

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