Dallas County Judge Dismisses GOP's Lawsuit to Kick Local Democrats off November Ballot

Dallas County Democrats avoided a crisis Monday afternoon when Dallas County District Judge Eric Moyé dismissed a lawsuit that would've kicked dozens of Democratic candidates off November's general election ballot. Moyé dismissed the suit — brought by the Dallas County Republican Party and its chairwoman, Missy Shorey — for lack of standing.

In January, Shorey alleged that Dallas County Democratic Party Chairwoman Carol Donovan failed to sign some candidates' ballot applications, as required by state law, and instead delegated the duty to a subordinate.

Democrats fought back, alleging that the lawsuit was the latest attempt by the state's Republican party to keep minority voters from casting ballots. Shorey's argument, essentially, was that rules are rules, and Donovan hadn't followed them. In the end, Moyé, whom Republicans tried to have removed from the case because he's a Democrat, sided with Democrats' claims that Shorey did not have standing to file the suit because she wasn't one of the candidates running against a Democrat whose application Donovan skipped over.

"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," West Dallas state Rep. Eric Johnson, one of the candidates made vulnerable by the lawsuit, said Monday. "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."

The Dallas County GOP did not return a request to comment on the ruling.