HARLINGEN – There’s less than a week before Election Day, but that hasn’t stopped Star Locke from trying to get his name on the ballot for president.
Yesterday, his request for federal court intervention to place his name on the ballot in all 50 states, was heard.
But, it didn’t go as he had hoped.
United States District Judge Andrew Hanen dismissed Locke’s most recent filing, citing he did not have the authority to do what Locke was asking.
Just after the court hearing, Locke said he was disappointed, but understood.
“He asked me how he had the authority,” Locke said of Hanen. “He wanted me to explain it.”
Locke had a reason, “I said you are the last man on a horse with a gun, you are the strongest man here in Texas.”
But, that wasn’t good enough, even if it did earn some chuckles from Hanen.
On Oct. 31, Locke filed a request for a temporary order to “restrain the election divisions of all 50 of the United States from beginning, holding and counting the votes” until his motion to be on the ballot was heard.
He also suggested the election be delayed until Dec. 7.
“The fact that citizen Star Locke’s constitutional rights at/in jeopardy here and to proceed with this election at this time will only increase the daily abuse and violations to continue,” he wrote in the court document.
Locke is representing himself in these efforts.
A response from the defendants, the Democratic National Committee, opposed the restraining order, citing several reasons.
The response states, “Ballot access is governed by state law, to obtain the relief requested, plaintiff must seek it from the appropriate local elections officials in accordance with the laws of each of the 50 states.”
The response states “neither the DNC nor this court has the authority to effectuate plaintiff’s requested relief.”
Hanen agreed with the DNC’s statements.
While he didn’t win his argument, Locke has had some other victories during this process and will continue his effort.
He has until later this month to file an updated complaint about the DNC’s violation of the 14th amendment.
The DNC will then respond to his updated complaint, which focused around the DNC not allowing Locke and others to participate in the Democratic debates.
In the court order entered yesterday, Locke has permission to replead his Fourteenth Amendment Due Process and Equal Protection claims from his original complaint in May.
Although the DNC motioned to have that May lawsuit completely dismissed, Hanen left the door open for part of the claim continuing.
In an order, Hanen wrote Locke’s claims of violations of the First, Ninth, Tenth and Thirteenth Amendments were dismissed.
However, dismissal of his Fourteenth Amendment Due Process and Equal Protection Clause claims were denied.
Although he’s happy about it, that’s not what he wanted.
“What I really want is a ballot position,” he said a couple weeks ago. “All I ever wanted was to be on the ballot.”
According to an NBCnews.com article, in order to have your name on the presidential ballot as an independent, a person needs to gather enough signatures on petitions in each of the 50 states to be on each of the ballots.
The article stated a whole lot of money is also needed. States can require dozens of thousands of signatures and a filing fee. Some states are more difficult to get your name on the ballot than others.
