Thursday, September 13, 2012

Texas: AG rules that signature petitions in Sinton recall must be made public, though allows addresses to be withheld

Texas' Attorney General's Office has ruled that the petitions for the recall of three Sinton City Council members must be made public. The three council members and city attorney were questioning the validity of the signatures, but rather than show the signatures, the City Secretary punted to the Attorney General.

The Assistant Attorney General said that the addresses can be withheld, though that seems to be a strange ruling, as one of the complaints is that some of the petitioners were non-residents.

There is also a complaint that one of the petition leaders is a a niece of the city manager, whose firing led to the recall effort. This fact is disputed, and I'm not sure why it would matter.

Update: Richard Winger from the invaluable Ballot Access News has added an explanatory comment below.

1 comment:

  1. Texas has no law prohibiting out-of-state residents for circulating petitions in Texas. And even if Texas had such a law, such restrictions have been struck down in many states in the nation. Only six states still ban out-of-state residents from petitioning for all kinds of petitions.

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