It seems that both Republicans and Democrats are going to get away with breaking election law in Texas this November. Texas has some fairly clear laws regarding the timetable for candidates to get on the ballot:

... before 5 p.m. of the 70th day before presidential election day, the party's state chair signs and delivers to the secretary of state a written certification of the names of the party's nominees for president and vice-president...

However, as my friend John Washburn points out, neither the Republicans nor the Democrats had their list of candidates submitted on time.  In fact, McCain hadn't even named a VP by then, and neither party had actually gone through the formality of actually certifying their candidates by convention by that time.  Unfortunately, the Secretary of State in Texas has decided to ignore the law in Texas and certify both the Republican and Democratic candidates in that state.  Libertarian candidate Bob Barr has filed a suit in an attempt to force the Secretary to obey the law:

Libertarian presidential candidate Bob Barr has filed suit that would keep voters from seeing the names Barack Obama and John McCain on their voting machines, saying they failed to follow the Texas law to get their names placed on the ballot. The Libertarians are claiming that both the Texas Democratic and Republican parties missed the deadline to certify their presidential nominees and report them to the Texas Secretary of State.

Texas law says that has to happen 70 days prior to the general election. The problem? Neither party held its convention in time to meet that Aug. 26 deadline. Obama and Joe Biden were nominated by roll call vote on Aug. 27, and McCain and Sarah Palin until Sept. 3.

The Secretary of State's office says there's no problem and the paperwork's all fine, thank you.

Even Ralph Nader is siding with Barr on this one:

Clearly this presents three options for the Democrats and Republicans... First, they could recognize that our crazy-quilt system of unfair ballot access laws harms not only independent and minor party candidates but also democracy processes. They could provide real reform to ensure that voters are able to vote for candidates of their choosing in this upcoming and future elections.

Second, they could take the same medicine they have been dishing out to grassroots candidates for decades, and have their candidates John McCain and Barack Obama join me as write-in candidates in Texas. But what is most likely is that they will choose the third option, which we have seen in the past. They will simply lean on state officials to ignore the law or direct the Texas legislature to push back the deadline after it expired. If this happens, then it is just another example of political bigotry and its double-standard in American politics: independent and minor-party candidates are strictly held to ridiculous requirements to participate in democracy, while the two-party duopoly are given a privileged pass.

Now I'm sure those of you Republican and Democratic party stalwarts who are still reading this post are probably shaking your head and my craziness.  Why am I making a big deal out of this?  Why be so childish?  Well, as the Barr campaign properly points out:

Over the past several decades, Libertarians have spent millions of dollars, filed countless numbers of lawsuits while being sued countless numbers of times over their right to be on the ballot. Thousands of people have put in their time, energy, earnings and passion in an effort that, in the end, simply allows a voter to see a candidate’s name printed on the ballot.

Throughout every battle that we engage in each election season, we must dot every "I" and cross every "T" or face the consequences of failure for our ballot drives.

Even when we follow the letter of the law, as we did in Pennsylvania, we still face challenges that drain our financial resources and strain our staff.

Should we give Barack Obama and John McCain a pass in Texas and look the other way? Would they do that for us?

That's an excellent question indeed.  In fact, I believe it's important to not give them any pass at all.  After all, they are the ones who created the rules in the first place.  If they can't follow their own rules, then what good are they?!  The reality is, Libertarians have probably had to spend more money during campaigns over the years suing to get on a ballot, then actually spending money trying to get votes.

In fact, I hold Republicans more accountable for this than Democrats.  Even right now in Wisconsin, the Republican Attorney General is filing suit while will potentially keep millions of voters off the roles due to the state's own incompetence at maintaining a database... not because of voter malfeasance.  They cite the need to follow the rule of law, and have a fair election as decided upon by the law.  But when it comes to making their candidates obey that law... well... that's somehow different.  Every election, Republicans are the ones who bang the drum of election fraud, having fair elections, and making sure that people voting are allowed to do so.  That means that they need to be held to the highest standard themselves.

Open ballot access is critical to a fair and free democracy.  Unfortunately, fair ballot access is something that neither the Republicans nor the Democrats believe in.  They have rigged the system so much, that when polled, many people believe that having two parties is written into the Constitution.  The Republicans and Democrats need to be held accountable to their own rules, if for no other reason than to create a fair system in the future.