Bill Analysis
Under current law, there is no additional petition signature requirement for candidates who file to be on the ballot and pay the filing fee.
This bill would re-establish an extra 250 signature petition requirement for judicial candidates who choose to pay the filing fee, an extra 250 signatures on top of that for judicial candidates who do not pay the filing fee, and a 50 signature requirement from each court of appeals district for candidates for the office of chief justice, supreme court justice, or presiding judge or judge on the court of criminal appeals.
These requirement would only apply to counties with a population of more than 1.5 million, which includes Harris, Dallas, Tarrant, and Bexar counties.
The bill would also add the provision that unless the petition is challenged, an authority is only required to review the petition for facial compliance. The bill would also require a challenge to state specifically how an application for a place on the ballot does not comply with the applicable requirements as to form, content, and procedure, and the authority's review of the challenge would be limited to the specific items challenged and any response filed with the authority by the challenged candidate.