Mail-in ballots delayed after ruling in favor of Green Party candidates

NACOGDOCHES, Texas (KTRE) - East Texas voters expecting their mail-in ballot will have to wait longer for its arrival. They were set to be mailed out in Nacogdoches County this week.

A Texas Supreme Court ruling says three Green Party candidates must be added to the ballot. Ballots, statewide, were certified by the Secretary of State back on August 31. Now they must be destroyed and the process starts all over again.

Election administrator chat rooms lit up with less than happy comments, according to Todd Stallings.

“It’s going to be a mess everywhere.”

At issue is a new requirement that third parties pay filing fees like Democrats and Republicans do. The law was passed last year by the Legislature. It’s been tied up in courts by main- stream parties ever since.

“I think the parties have the right debate this and hammer it out. It’s just the timeliness of it because again this information has been known for ten months,” expressed Stallings.

Democratic Party chair for Nacogdoches County, Mike Strong reflects his party statement calling the decision by the all-Republican Supreme Court a political move.

“You don’t have cases with the Supreme Court pop up over night. Why did they do this? It seems pretty clear to me this is Republicans who knew it would hurt the Democratic Party,” said Strong.

Republican Party chair for Nacogdoches County Bradley Reynolds sees both parties fighting pretty much the same courtroom battle, with voters caught in the middle.

“Why at the last moment we’re coming up with answer like this, I have no idea, but for Nacogdoches County, thank goodness, we have not sent our mail-out ballots out as of yet,” said Reynolds.

That task is likely to happen around October 1. Stallings isn’t sure how the first set of ballots will be destroyed, nor who will pay the cost of a second printing.

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