On August 8, a challenge was filed against the New York Libertarian statewide petition, for president and U.S. Senate. The challengers are Philip Donald Stevens of Berne, New York, and Molly Rouse of Buffalo, New York.
New York requires 15,000 signatures. The Libertarian petition has 32,617 signatures. So far there are only general objections. The objectors have five days to file specific objections.
Stevens is the former chair of the Berne Republican committee and is the uncle of former Berne Republican town councilwoman Bonnie Conklin. Stevens also formerly ran for town council. Molly Rouse is assistant coach of the women’s soccer team at the University of Buffalo.
(this is all public information)
thank you, Cal.
I predict the LP petition to survive the challenge.
I will be so pssssssssed if Gary doesn’t make it in New York, they should have collected more in such a big state..
Thanks for passing this along. Do you have a link to the actual objection, presumably on the state elections website?
This is one reason why you collect more signatures than you need.
New York isn’t that bad. The LP always makes it on.
It’s funny to think that theoretically Gary Johnson could win the election this year and the Libertarian Party still wouldn’t be recognized as a permanent party in New York.
New York represents a potential big haul of votes for the Libertarians. If Trump loses and the Libertarians get 5% of the vote (something like 6 Million Votes) the Libertarians will qualify for Federal Funds to set up a National Party Structure. That would cast the die for the Republicans to go the way of the Whigs in a few election cycles.
@Bob Marston: It’s true that the Libertarians could get Federal funds if they get 5% of the vote (whether or not Trump loses). However, I suspect that there are some people in the LP who would oppose taking such funds because they don’t believe in public financing of campaigns.
By contrast, if Jill Stein got 5%, the Green Party would presumably be happy to accept the Federal funds because they do support public financing of campaigns.
@Johnny: Gary Jonson was lucky to get that many signatures in New York. Many people in New York who usually pass petitions didn’t this year because they didn’t like the fact that Weld won the VP nod over Larry Sharpe, who is from New York. (Of course they also didn’t believe Weld is a true Libertarian.) We were constantly getting e-mails from the State Party Chair telling us we were short signatures and needed to get on the ball or we wouldn’t get the veto proof amount that we needed. I think a lot of people only ended up passing the petition because our Senate candidate’s name was on the same petition as Johnson.
I hope the LP gets on in Mass and NY. It will be interesting to see if the Weld name, which is well known in both states, will have any impact.
@Joshua K. I am aware of Libertarian Principles and if they were to attain 5% of the vote only to turn down the money the Libertarian Party can write its obituary. The Libertarians Party no longer has the strength it once did. In the 1980s it had its Ballot Line locked up on 50 State Ballots early in the proceedings. These days it struggles with the rest of the pack to petition their way on in 16 states, many in the late summer months. If the Republicans Self Destruct in November and the Libertarians get enough votes for Federal Money only to turn it down on principle they will have a very hard time appealing for votes from disaffected voters. Turning down the money would send the message to the public they are not out to win when they refuse to use every means available to them to achieve that end.
As to the Greens the idea of them getting 6 Millions Votes smacks of Science Fiction. They received 2.9 million votes in 2000 only to shoot themselves in the foot with two disastrous campaigns in 2004 and 2008. Nader actually abandoned the Greens late in the 2000 Campaign after he spent a few weeks stumping for Industrial Hemp. A concession the Greens extracted in exchange for the ballot. The 2004 train wreck was so bad Cobb didn’t even get 120,000 votes. Now they have Jill Stein going around in circles defending the Anti Vaccination Crowd. Politico ran a story Sunday Night portraying the Greens as a Party of Kooks, Paranoics and Crackpots. They will never receive mainstream votes with that type of reputation. After abandoning the Greens Ralph Nader called them “weird”. The Greens will be lucky to get a million votes.
Bob, in 1980, the Libertarian Party presidential nominee didn’t get on all 50 state ballots until September 16, 1980, the day the party won its West Virginia lawsuit, W.V. LP v Manchin, 270 SE 2d 634.
And in 1984 the party missed the ballot in eleven states, the worst it ever did (excluding 1972 and 1976).