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Strayhorn Files Suit Against State Election Chief: His Office Defends Deliberate Pace of Verifying Signatures

Posted on: Sunday, 26 March 2006, 00:00 CST

By Karen Brooks, The Dallas Morning News

Mar. 26--ELECTIONS '06AUSTIN -- Independent gubernatorial candidate Carole Keeton Strayhorn sued the state's election chief Friday, accusing him of using his office to put up "unlawful roadblocks" to cripple challengers seeking to unseat GOP Gov. Rick Perry -- who appointed him to his post.

The 12-page suit says Secretary of State Roger Williams is hurting Mrs. Strayhorn's campaign by purposely choosing to verify petition signatures to put her on the ballot in a time-consuming manual process, delaying her declaration as an official candidate.

The campaign is asking a federal judge to force Mr. Williams to verify signatures more quickly, using statistical sampling or a rolling review process instead of taking months to check each one after all are submitted.

Mr. Williams denied both those requests last month. He has said that it could take up to two months to review every signature and has promised only to have it done before a September deadline.

"The secretary of state and Rick Perry must be very afraid to throw up all the roadblocks they're attempting to throw up against us which are both unlawful and unconstitutional," said Mrs. Strayhorn's son Brad McClellan, who is also her campaign manager. "The partisan secretary of state is doing all he can to deny the people a real choice for change in November. The governor certainly is calling the shots."

Mr. Williams, a longtime Republican fundraiser, said through spokesman Scott Haywood that he is trying to protect Texas voters against fraud in a crowded election season.

Mrs. Strayhorn and musician-writer Kinky Friedman -- whom she invited to join the suit -- each must gather 45,540 signatures to get on the ballot. Each signature must be from a registered voter who didn't vote in a primary and didn't sign anyone else's petition.

The Strayhorn campaign argues that Mr. Williams is violating the election code, First Amendment and voting rights by choosing the slowest method possible. Mr. Haywood disputed that.

"Given the fact there are multiple individuals vying for a spot on the ballot as an independent, verifying every signature is the surest way to protect the integrity of our elections and confirm the validity of a candidate's name on the ballot," Mr. Haywood said.

Perry spokesman Robert Black brushed off Mrs. Strayhorn's contentions that his appointee was protecting him.

"Why should Carole Strayhorn get special treatment from the secretary of state?" he said. "Texans should demand that the secretary of state follow the law and follow the rules and apply the law equally to everyone."

A spokeswoman for Mr. Friedman, who has said the state's political process panders to established parties, said his campaign is considering joining the suit. Mr. Friedman has criticized Mr. Williams for encouraging Texans to vote in the primaries, saying that hurt his chances of getting on the ballot.

E-mail kmbrooks@dallasnews.com

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Dallas Morning News

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Source: The Dallas Morning News

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