AUSTIN - On Friday, the Texas Supreme Court denied an emergency mandamus action brought by Republican Party candidates seeking to remove Libertarian Party opponents in the upcoming November 2022 general election.
The petition asserted the Libertarian candidates failed to pay a statutory filing fee. Justices held that the petition was untimely and did not address the merits of Election Code arguments made by the parties.
“By denying the petition as untimely, we do not suggest that the relief the relators seek would or would not have been appropriate had the petition been filed more speedily,” the high court’s per curiam opinion states. “We do not address the merits of the parties’ dispute about the Election Code’s requirements.”
According to the opinion, the Republicans argued that the Texas Election Code requires exclusion of the Libertarian candidates from the ballot.
The Libertarians, however, responded with a plausible, competing understanding of the Election Code under which, even if the fee has not been paid, removing these candidates from the ballot is not the appropriate remedy at this stage of the election process, the opinion states.
Case No. 22-0658