The Libertarian Party of North Dakota is racing to finish its petition for party recognition by the April 9 deadline. The requirement is 7,000 signatures, and the party has more than 4,000.
The petition to recognize a political party has existed in North Dakota since 1939 (prior to that, there were only independent candidate petitions, which permitted the candidate using the independent procedure to choose a party label that was printed on the November ballot next to the candidate’s name). In all the years the North Dakota party petition procedure has existed, no party has ever used it in a midterm year.
Between 1939 and 1980, the party petition was 15,000 signatures, but the 8th circuit ruled in McLain v Meier that the law was too harsh. In 1981 the legislature lowered it to 7,000 signatures.
The most important offices up in North Dakota in 2010 are U.S. Senate, U.S. House, and Secretary of State. If the Libertarian Party gets on the ballot in 2010 and polls as much as 5% for Secretary of State, it will be automatically on the ballot in 2012.
Interesting. A third party candidate for Secretary of State could actually do fairly well, assuming the right sort of candidate was chosen and a serious campaign effort was initiated. The key would not only be ballot access but media coverage — the local press has some problems in this area and I not sure if the ND LP has much of a presence on-line
“and I not sure if the ND LP has much of a presence on-line.”
The Libertarian Party of North Dakota has not even had a website in several years.
Beyond a web page, their is almost no presence in terms of the new social media; i.e. face book, myspace, youtube, etc.
Years ago, I think I met the ND LP web master at a dinner party or something. It was not a great web page to begin with and I am pretty sure he was going to give it up.
In trying to get something done about election law reform in North Dakota, I generally found it very difficult to get in touch with anyone in charge at the party. Even then, I attended a few nice lunches and dinners but got little interest.
The North Dakota Libertarian Party state convention this year is April 3 (Saturday) in Fargo at the VFW hall. Contact state chair Richard Ames for more information. r.ames@wah.midco.net