AUSTIN - Musician and author Kinky Friedman took his rebel campaign for governor to state authorities Thursday, presenting 169,574 voter signatures he hopes will get him on the November ballot as an independent candidate.
'All I can say is, thank God for bars and dance halls,' said Friedman, who wore his trademark black cowboy hat and chomped a cigar while explaining where many signatures came from.
Independent gubernatorial candidates had to collect 45,540 signatures from registered voters by Thursday's deadline to make it onto the ballot.
Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn, the other major independent in the race, turned in Tuesday what her campaign said were 223,000 voter signatures.
Republican Gov. Rick Perry and Democrat Chris Bell will be on the fall ballot because they won their parties' primaries in March.
The Secretary of State's Office has said it will take five or six weeks to verify whether Friedman and Strayhorn have enough valid signatures. An outside vendor will input the names into a computer database, then state officials will check the names for validity.
Those who signed the independent candidates' petitions cannot have voted in the Republican or Democratic primaries or runoffs. Voters cannot sign more than one independent petition, or the signature provided second won't be counted."
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