On January 14, West Virginia Libertarian Party state chair Matt Harris, and national chair Bill Redpath, spent the day lobbying key West Virginia legislators for better ballot access. Currently, for president, West Virginia is tied with North Carolina for having the 2nd most restrictive requirement. West Virginia requirements for office other than president are even more restrictive than for president, and no statewide non-presidential petition has succeeded in West Virginia since 2000.
GOOD TO SEE SOME ACTUAL LOBBYING EFFORTS. IF THEY ARE NOT SUCCESSFUL, MAYBE COME BACK NEXT YEAR WITH A COALITION OF INDEPENDENTS AND MINOR PARTY MEMBERS.
Why in the hell wasn’t this done by Redpath BEFORE Denver??? Isn’t ballot access supposed to be his thing? Kudos to Matt for finally getting him busy on this. May LPWV get their access soon!
Well I guess all of my work didn’t deserve a mention. Just kidding, as I don’t care. As long as this thing gets passed.
The LPWV site will soon be updated with more information.
Michael,
This bill was introduced last year, but never made it out of the judiciary. The delegate is getting ready to introduce it again which is why we are lobbying now.
Redpath deserves a lot of credit (which he probably won’t get) as he drove 5 1/2 hours to simply lobby with us all day. He has been extremely helpful to the LPWV.
Is there anything an out-of-stater can do to help the people lobbying for this? West Virginia’s high requirements took a lot of resources from the Constitution Party in 2008 and I am under the impression that this lack of funding helped make it difficult for our candidates in several New England states.
How can I help?
It’s crazy that we fight in Iraq so that they can have multi party elections, but in WV, it’s virtually impossible to make the ballot. Iraq has more voting freedom than WV!
Fred http://www.fourpointreport.blogspot.com
Tad was indeed there as well.
Anyone who wants to help in any way can email me at mdh@lpwv.org and I’ll get back to you within a week or so to let you know what you can do. Of course, a contribution to the LPWV always helps, and you can donate to our cause online at http://www.lpwv.org/
You can also send us a check to
LPWV
PO Box 4428
Star City, WV 26504
Beyond that, there are probably other tasks we can find for folks to do. We are taking the lead on this and other legislative lobbying efforts. It is my sincere hope that we can get this passed in time for our 2010 ballot access efforts, since we already have a number of confirmed LPWV candidates for the 2010 elections here in WV for state and local offices.
– Matt Harris, LPWV Chair