The Secretary of State’s office has approved the write-in candidacies of 11 presidential candidates, including former Travis Co. Republican Party Chair Robert Morrow.
The other approved candidates are Scott Cubbler, Cherunda Fox, Tom Hoefling, Laurance Kotlikoff, Jonathan Lee, Michael Maturen, Monica Moorehead, Emidio Soltysik, Dale Steffes and Tony Valdivia.
Several of the candidates are affiliated with minor parties that are not active in Texas:
- Hoefling (Iowa) is the American Party’s nominee
- Maturen (Michigan) is the American Solidarity Party’s nominee
- Moorehead (New Jersey) is the Workers World Party’s nominee; and
- Soltysik (California) is running as a Socialist Party candidate.
Koltikoff (Massachusetts), who claims to be registered in 28 states, is an independent. Cubbler, Fox, Lee, Morrow, Steffes and Valdivia do not appear to be on the ballot in any other state, according to Ballot Access News.
Hoefing is a certified write-in candidate for a second time. He received 374 votes out of nearly 8 million cast in 2012.
Independent candidate Evan McMullin’s filing was rejected because he did not include the names of presidential elector candidates with his application. He plans to sue the state to gain ballot access. Independent candidate Souraya Faas (Florida) has sued the state in U.S. District Court seeking ballot access. She has a Monday (tomorrow) deadline to file new motions or the case will be dismissed.
Unlike independent candidates, whose names appear on the ballot, write-in candidates must be written in by individual voters. Votes will be counted only for those write-in candidates who have met the certification standards, which is why votes for Robert Morrow will count and those for Spongebob Squarepants will not.
We have requested but not received a list of certified independent candidates from the Secretary of State’s office. We know that no presidential candidate met that filing deadline, and neither did Rep. Laura Thompson (I-San Antonio).
Thursday is the deadline for state election officials to certify all names for the general election ballot.
