The Arizona Libertarian Party was entitled to its own government-financed presidential primary last month. But the party, as it had done once before, asked the state government not to hold a presidential primary for itself. Instead, the party planned its own on-line presidential primary. The party sent out a press release, accurately saying that its decision was saving Arizona taxpayers approximately $1,000,000.
Since the party’s primary was simultaneous with the government-funded major party presidential primaries, i.e., February 5, one would have expected the party to have announced the results long before now. It turns out that the party promoted its own presidential primary very badly, and fewer than 70 voters participated. The party has been embarassed by the tiny turnout and that is the reason it still hasn’t posted the results.
Anarchy in action ???
Didn’t they use a web-based voting system? How many registered Libertarian voters are in their state?..
It’s possible that a number of them were Ron Paul supporters and already cast a vote in the Republican primary. Do they hold closed primaries in Arizona?
Arizona has closed presidential primaries, but that has nothing to do with the private Libertarian presidential primary. Any registered Libertarian was free to vote in the LP primary. There are 17,704 registered Libertarians in the state.
The Minnesota Independence Party, according to the state website, had 70 fewer voters than the Arizona Libertarian’s 70 votes.
If you look at the Minnesota Constitution Party results, Ron Paul won with 65 votes. The only non-Republican Party candidate got a whopping one vote.
I don’t think the Arizona Libertarians could be more embarassed than the Minnesota Consitutionalists.