Posted by
Nerdus Maximus on Friday, July 07, 2006 1:22:25 PM
A Texas judge has ruled that Tom Delay’s name must remain on the ballot since he won the primary, even
though he has dropped out of the race and changed his residency to his home in Washington. Republicans say that Texas
election law allows them to put another name in his place, but Democrats say
there is insufficient proof that he will not be a resident of Texas on election day.
This sounds eerily similar to the last election cycle, but then it was a New Jersey
Democrats who wanted a fellow named Torricelli off the ballot. There were plenty of very clear reasons to
not allow this, not the least of which is that applicable New Jersey law states that the "vacancy
shall occur not later than the 51st day before the general election.", and
this was only 35 days before the election.
The judge allowed the switch and we now have Senator Frank Lautenberg as
a result. There was one difference we
should note. Torricelli wasn’t just accused of wrong doing.
So maybe Tom DeLay should change his name to Tom Torricelli
and his legal residence to New Jersey. It has to be the name and state of
residence since no judge would allow which party would benefit from the switch
to make a difference.