Civil District Court Judge Eric Moyé
Civil District Court Judge Eric Moyé has dismissed the Dallas County Republican Party’s lawsuit to remove more than 80 mostly minority Democratic candidates from the 2018 general election ballot in Dallas County.
State Representative Eric Johnson, D-Dallas, who was among the candidates targeted by the Dallas County Republican Party, filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit in March.
Republicans charged the Dallas County Democratic Party chair didn’t sign the ballot petitions of the candidates challenged. Texas election code doesn’t require the party chair’s signature or any particular form. The Secretary of State, however, does create forms that include all of the required information that must be submitted to the state before being placed on the ballot.
What is required is a lawsuit must be signed and the Dallas County Republican Party chair didn’t sign the lawsuit it originally submitted.
“This frivolous lawsuit was a thinly veiled attempt by the Dallas County Republican Party to take away the ability of minority voters in Dallas County to elect the candidates of their choice,” Johnson said. “The Republican Party seems to be doing everything in its power to show minority voters that it has little regard for them at the national, state, and now local level.
“I think the 2018 midterm elections will be a wake-up call for Republicans,” Johnson added.“Minority voters now clearly see the GOP for what it is. It isn’t the party of Abraham Lincoln anymore. It’s the party of Donald Trump.”
The Republican Party has to pay Democratic Party attorneys fees for having to defend a lawsuit that “has no basis in law or fact.”
— David Taffet
