On August 1, the Alaska Division of Elections ruled that the Libertarian Party is not ballot-qualified for president, even though that conclusion directly contradicts a 1987 Attorney General ruling, and the law has not changed since 1987.
Alaska has two categories of qualified party, those that are qualified for all office, and those that are only qualified for President. The latter is called a “Limited Political Party.” The Libertarian Party polled 6.05% for President in November 2016. A “limited political party” retains its status as long as it polls at least 3% for President. But the Elections Division says that because the party lost its status as a “limited political party” in 1992 (by polling less than 3% for president that year) it doesn’t make any difference that the party polled over 3% in 2016.
Here is the ruling. In footnote 3 it says the facts in the 1987 were different, but the only difference is that at that time, the party had always polled 3% for President, whereas now, the opinion depends on the fact that the party didn’t poll 3% for president in 1992. It seems unreasonable to pay more attention to what happened in 1992 than to what happened in 2016.
Here is the 1987 Attorney General’s Opinion, which put the Libertarian Party on the ballot for the 1988 presidential election because it had polled over 3% for president in 1984. When the 1987 opinion was issued, the party was not qualified for office other than president, which matches the 2019 situation.
NEW AGE HACKS — past is irrelevant.
See Borgs in Star Trek.
Can the AK LP get a LAWYER with SOME brain cells about EQUAL in 14-1 ???
See footnote 3.
While they may or may not have interpreted the applicability of the 1987 AG opinion, it is erroneous to state that they did not acknowledge it.
Alaska should adopt Top 2, eliminating the need for determining whether a party is qualified to make nominations.
As I understood the situation a few months ago, the Alaska LP needed only another 1,300 or so registered Libertarians to become a qualified party and they were actively working on that project.
Richard: how many registered members do they have at latest count, and how many do they need? Achieving that goal will revert this issue moot.
So, does this mean 50 state ballot access is off the table for the LP in 2020?
No. The party can file a presidential petition, which would be due in about a year from now. Or the party can finish its registration drive, and if it gets about 1,800 more registered members, it will again be fully-qualified for all office. Or it might sue.
As of the July report, 7182 vs. 8495 needed. The elections division is required to do a monthly checvk. There ix no indication of a drive so far this year. The party lost about 360 in the March purge.
The Republicrat Establishment will do whatever it takes to rig the game so the duopoly gets no serious opposition from the left, the right, or any other direction.
Top Two in Alaska would result in general election contests of two Republicans for just about every office. Anybody who doesn’t want to vote GOP would be effectively disenfranchised.
Who checks to detect if ANY human exists in a zillion square miles of AK Stone Age wilderness ???
STONE AGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Try ICE AGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Many AK STONE/ICE AGE precincts bigger than lots of Nation-States ???
How are ballots delivered — USPS nuke powered snails, balloons, ICBMs, sled dogs, bears, elk, etc. ???
Demo Rep has obviously never been to Anchorage. Very modern city.
318,608 AK 2016 Prez votes
663,300 AK area sq miles
Do the ratio math — esp excluding Anchorage, Fairbanks and Juneau.
Every year delivery of mail to RURAL boondock mailboxes ???
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IE one more AREA having 2 more HACKS in the ANTI-Democracy gerrymander USA Senate.
Sorry – AG ops means very little in REAL court cases — esp when AGs are robot party HACKS.