I just read this on the BOR, which linked to the Texas on the Potomac blog (link). Yikes! I hardly know what to say or think about this. This is more news than diary.
Libertarian presidential candidate wants to remove both John McCain and Barack Obama from the ballot in Texas and has filed suit to eliminate the major-party candidates from consideration by Texas voters.
His argument is that the Democratic and Republican parties technically violated state election law by failing to deliver written certification of their nominations by 5 p.m. 70 days before the Nov. 4 election.
Texas election code §192.031 requires that the "written certification" of the "party's nominees" be delivered "before 5 p.m. of the 70th day before election day." Because neither candidate had been nominated by the official filing deadline, the Barr campaign argues it was impossible for the candidates to file under state law.
UPDATE: That would have been Aug. 25. Obama did not accept his party’s
nomination until Aug. 28, McCain his on Sept. 4.
The petition also alleges that the Democratic Party's late presidential filing falsely claimed under oath that Senator Obama had been nominated hours before the nomination actually occurred.
Scanning through some of the comments below, I noticed if the Texas Supreme Court rules against the Republicans and Democrats, it almost guarantees that Obama will win -- that McCain can't achieve 270 votes without Texas' 34 EVs, and that therefore the House of Representatives casts the vote.
Barr will hold a press conference Thursday outside the Texas Supreme Court to make his case, but it sounds like he may not be successful in removing Obama and McCain's names from the ballot.
Link.
IMPORTANT UPDATE: Kossack Neil has posted a link to a story that shows that Barr is misreading the Texas law, that the Aug. 26th deadline is for independent and 3rd party candidates, and a different section of the code applies to major party candidates. Here's the link, complete with the State code.
Sorry for the adrenalin rush! Many thanks to Neil for posting the correct info.