The Maine Libertarian Party is attempting to qualify as a party. It will succeed if it has at least 5,000 registered members by December 1, 2015. The party now has approximately 1,000 registered members.
The only other time the Libertarian Party was a qualified party in Maine was during 1991 and 1992. It had 1,048 registered members just before the November 1992 election, but then it went off the ballot and all its registrants were converted to independents.
As long as the Libertarian and any other political party (or independent) continues to proclaim that they alone are the best, that the put effort into single-winner elections both internally and externally, they will continue to be marginalized, self-destructive and demoralizing to all involved.
Are you tired of seeing this happen because of the psychology of single-winner, plurality elections which make the two-party system what it is today?
Try pure proportional representation (PR). The 9th USA Parliament has been using it for 20 consecutive years and it works fine.
http://www.usparliament.org
I have never seen any statement from the Libertarian Party proclaiming that “the Libertarian Party alone is the best.” Do you have a reference for that quote?
Do these registrants get deregistered as Libertarians if the LP fails to get 5000 by Dec. 1?
That’s a good question. I don’t think that is determined yet. The Libertarian Party is using a procedure that the legislature created in 2013. The Libertarian Party is the first group to even try to use it.
There is a good case to be made that the December 1, 2015 deadline is unconstitutional. The Maine primary is not until mid-June.