With the memory of a heated 2018 election cycle still fresh, Texas House Republicans and Democrats were divided this week over how to treat third-party candidates who have the potential to siphon votes from the major parties.

A bill passed Friday with mostly Republican support would make it easier for third parties like the Green Party, whose voters often overlap with Democrats’, to get their candidates on the ballot in 2020. The Libertarian Party, often seen as Republicans’ competition, already meets current requirements.

Texas makes the process for third parties to enter races difficult as it is. First, a party must either hold a convention with total attendance equal to 1 percent of the total votes cast for governor in the last election or gather the signatures of that many people who did not vote in a primary that year.

That means to get on the ballot in 2020, a party would need more than 83,000 signatures.

In order to keep that automatic ballot access, at least one candidate running for statewide office must win at least 5% of the vote in the previous election.

The bill passed Friday, House Bill 2504, sponsored by Rep. Drew Springer, R-Muenster, included an amendment that would eliminate the convention and petition requirement if a candidate received 2% of the vote in the last five general elections.

The bill also requires that candidates either pay a filing fee or submit a petition to run for election.

Springer said his bill was about fairness and giving lesser-known parties a chance to promote their candidates.

“We shouldn’t be afraid of having more candidates for people to choose from,” Springer said. “Having the possibility to have more candidates and more messages I think is a good thing.”

The bill next goes to the Senate for approval; however it may end up one of the hundreds that go unheard as lawmakers rush to pass bills before their May 27 deadline. There is no Senate version of the bill.

The Libertarian Party gained access to the ballot in 2020 after a candidate earned 25 percent of the vote in a race for a judgeship on the Court of Criminal Appeals last year.

But the Green Party lost ballot access in 2016 after it fell short of the 5 percent threshold. The party did not mobilize a large enough petition effort in 2018 to get back on the ballot for the last election.

Wesson Gaige, co-chair of the Green Party of Texas, was cautiously optimistic about the bill’s passage on Friday knowing that it still needs Senate approval.

If it does pass, Gaige said “we will be running Green candidates who uphold planet over profit, people over profit and peace over profit.”

State Rep. Chris Turner, chair of the House Democratic Caucus, said he opposed the bill because Springer added the 2% requirement in a last-minute amendment without enough time for members to consider it.

“This wasn’t discussed, it wasn’t debated, it wasn’t even described to membership, and the body was deprived of having that discussion,” Turner said.

The discussion Friday was a 180-degree turn from Wednesday when Rep. Mayes Middleton, R-Wallisville, proposed a bill that would have made it harder for third party candidates to run.

His House Bill 4416 would have raised the threshold to 10% of the total vote in the last general election. Middleton, who did not respond to a request for comment, decided not to push the bill after it became clear he lacked the votes.

“It’s a mixed bill from a third-party standpoint,” said Wes Benedict, former executive director for the Libertarian Party of Texas.

While the lower threshold would help Libertarian and Green Party candidates stay on the ballot, Benedict said the fee requirement will hurt the parties. He said the filing fee helps pay for primary elections, in which third party candidates generally don’t participate because of the high barrier to entry.

The Libertarian Party would likely challenge that fee in court should the bill pass, he added.

“I think Republicans and Democrats should have been focusing on other issues,” Benedict said, “other than how to mistreat third parties.”