Barr loses bid to halt mailing of ballots

By W. Gardner Selby
AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN

Libertarian presidential nominee Bob Barr continued his effort Thursday to strike Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama from the Texas ballot.

In Austin on Thursday, Barr accompanied his attorney to request an emergency order from the Texas Supreme Court to stop the state from mailing absentee and military ballots, which is expected to start Saturday. (Barr's attorney, Drew Shirley, is also the Libertarian nominee for a Texas Supreme Court seat.) The court denied that request by the end of the day.

Barr still wants the court to remove the Democratic and Republican presidential nominees from the ballot because, he said, neither met a requirement in state law that nominees file paperwork to be on the ballot 70 days before the election.

Barr, a former congressman from Georgia, conceded that his legal action could result in the U.S. House choosing the next president. Such a long-shot scenario could play out if no candidate wins a majority of electoral votes Nov. 4.

Obama or McCain could fall short of a majority if the state's 34 electoral votes weren't available because the names weren't on the ballot.

Secretary of State Hope Andrade's office has said both Obama and McCain filed by the deadline and then supplemented their filings before the ballot was certified Sept. 3.

It appeared the deadline was likely to generate friction all along because it fell on Aug. 26, a day before Obama was nominated at the Democratic National Convention and eight days before McCain was nominated at the Republican National Convention.
Both conventions were scheduled late in the summer to avoid conflicts with the Summer Olympics.

The court has asked the candidates, the major parties and Andrade to respond to Barr's request by Monday afternoon.

On Wednesday, the state's solicitor general, James Ho, sent a letter to the court calling Barr's request untimely because ballots must soon be mailed to military and other overseas voters — a position revisited in a state brief filed Thursday.

Buck Wood, an Austin lawyer expert in election law, said Barr's interpretation of the law seems correct. But, Wood said, the request could be spurned by the court without explanation.

"The court can turn down a mandamus because they don't like the way you part your hair," he said. "They'll just deny it."