Libertarian Party National Committee Votes Not to Hold an In-Person Presidential Convention in Late May

Posted on by May 2, 2020

On May 2, the Libertarian National Committee held an electronic meeting to consider how to nominate a presidential candidate. The group voted not to hold an in-person convention in Austin over Memorial Day. But the group will re-convene in a week to choose an alternate plan.

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Libertarian Party National Committee Votes Not to Hold an In-Person Presidential Convention in Late May — 87 Comments

  1. This “alternate plan” should prove interesting! Las Vegas to piggyback on Freedom Fest? Virtual convention a la 1996 Reform Party? Like I said… interesting!

  2. Given that the nomination will be contested, they are well advised to choose a method of nomination that allows for the broadest participation by delegates to ensure that the nominee, whoever that may be, as the broadest support.

  3. Joshua Smith
    10 mins

    We have voted to pass: “Move to postpone the 2020 convention to an alternate date/location to be chosen by the LNC to a new physical location to take place no later than July 15, with a decision made by the LNC no later than ten days from today by electronic meeting.”

    The vote tally is below. I will explain my vote in the comments.

    Bilyeu Yes

    Bishop-Henchman No

    Ford No

    Goldstein Yes

    Hagan Yes

    Harlos Yes

    Hewitt Yes

    Lark Yes

    Longstreth No

    Mattson Yes

    Merced No

    Nekhaila No

    Phillips No

    Redpath No

    Sarwark (Presiding)

    Smith Yes

    Van Horn Yes

    Yes 9

    No 7

    Presiding 1

  4. How will this impact ballot access? Some states require names of candidates on petitions, and do not allow candidate substitution. Are ballot access deadlines going to be extended, and/or will signature requirements be reduced? Will it even be possible to have ballot drives happening unless lockdown is lifted?

    I personally think the lockdown is a scam, but that’s another issue.

  6. ALL LP elections by ALL mail ballots by ALL party members.

    PR and APPV pending Condorcet.
    —-
    END the spring/summer clubby oligarchy [aka ruling class] in the LP for 50 years.

  7. Andy, it will mean more lawsuits, unless states are willing to voluntarily waive certain rules. There is no rational reason why a candidate petition should not include the names of presidential elector candidates, but for the petition to list the presidential candidate as “to be chosen later”. When the First Circuit upheld the Massachusetts ban on presidential substitution, the rationale was that showing a stand-in on the presidential petition was misleading to the voters. So, the answer to that is not to mislead them, to give them the names of the true candidates and the party label. The electors are the true candidates, and the presidential candidate’s name on any November ballot is just a marker for competing slates of presidential electors. Voters will see the party label on the petition, except in Alabama and Tennessee.

  8. Unless the LNC does decide to amend the by-laws to allow a virtual convention, this is a disasterous course of action.

    Delaying the vote of the LP’s Presidential nominee will only make it harder- maybe impossible, to achieve ballot access in all 50 states.

    There are ways to hold a vote including most or all of the delegates virtually. It will be harder, yes, but not impossible. You could have delegates split into zoom calls by state, and have them vote on that. Then tally up all of the votes in each state, and send one representative from each state to another call to announce their states votes, so by the time of that call, we have a full vote.

  9. “Unless the LNC does decide to amend the by-laws to allow a virtual convention”

    According to their own legal counsel it wouldn’t have required any bylaws amendment. If it did, only the delegates can do that, not the LNC.

  10. Ironic that this vote was on the same date as the Constitution Party successfully held their virtual convention.

  11. Cost for LP Convention ??? [with ALL cancel fees – travel and hotel, etc] vs

    Cost of mail ballot election by ALL party members ???

  13. Also–

    ARTICLE 17: AMENDMENT
    1. These Bylaws may be amended by a 2/3 vote of the delegates at any Regular Convention.
    2. Article 3, Section 1, shall not be amended by a vote of less than 7/8 of all registered delegates at a Regular Convention.

  14. 1970 LP Bylaws were mainly copied from olde Elephant Bylaws.
    —-
    Will REAL Democracy in parties and govts rise out of the 2019-2020 COVID-19 death and destruction ??? —

    OR get total monarch/oligarch TYRANTS ???

    Stay tuned. Issue is in total doubt.
    —-
    PR
    APPV
    TOTSOP

  15. The motion passed specified that it had to be an in person convention, which in my opinion is moronic and a bad look for the party. It almost guarantees they will not have my vote in 2020. Clearly they do not take the health and safety of their party members seriously.

  16. “Gordon Shumway” sounds a lot like Paul. The Spanish speaking character might be him as well. I suspect he is playing character on a few recent comments on other threads as well.

  17. There’s a publicly available list of 2020 Libertarian National Convention delegates. Let’s see if “Gordon Shumway” is on there. I doubt that name will be found on there. Paul is on there as an Alabama delegate, but he said he is not going because he’s in a high risk category for Coronavirus. Sounds like “Gordon Shumway” to me.

  18. You do realize the vast majority people who even get the virus survive, right? They should have went along as scheduled.

  19. Yes, I think Coronavirus is an over-hyped scam that is being used for a cover for an economic downturn that was going to happen anyway, and so the federal government could ram a massive bailout through, and further tge police state agenda.

    Coronavirus deaths in this country are being exaggerated by including deaths where a person died of say a heart attack, or some otbef cause, but at the same time they had a Coronavirus, which could have been a common cold, as having been a Coronavirus death. They are also including “suspected” Coronavirus deaths, which means they do not even really know if a peeson died from Coronavirus or not, but tbey are including it anyway. Hospitals are being incentivized to fudge their Coronavirus death numbers, because they get $39,000 in grant money for every Coronavirus death tbey report.

    Are some people really dying from COVID-19? Probably, but they are people who are elderly and/or had pre-existing health problems. The real numbers are lower than what is being reported, at least in this country.

    Look at the death toll in Japan. It is much lower than what is being reported here. That is because the Japanese are not inflating their numbers.

  20. ““Gordon Shumway” sounds a lot like Paul. The Spanish speaking character might be him as well. I suspect he is playing character on a few recent comments on other threads as well.”

    Neither of them are me. You’ve joined Milnes and Nathan Norman in thinking I’m behind every name you don’t recognize on here, along with having similar attitudes about Jews. Congratulations, you’re officially around the bend. As for what Shumway said:

    “The motion passed specified that it had to be an in person convention, which in my opinion is moronic and a bad look for the party.”

    I wouldn’t have used those words, but I agree that it was a bad decision. However, I recognize it was a difficult one, that electronic conventions are not nearly as easy to pull off from the technical and logistical standpoint as some people seem to think, and that there are many other considerations such as a lot of refunds the party can’t afford.

    However, I think they will end up having to do all that anyway when the new dates also prove to be untenable, and be that much farther down the road in terms of ballot access loss and in terms of trying to figure out how they will overcome all those technical, logistical and financial issues. I think there’s a fair chance they won’t figure it out and will end up extending LNC terms and having the LNC pick the ticket in the end, after much unnecessary bellyaching, rescheduling and delay.

    “It almost guarantees they will not have my vote in 2020.”

    I don’t get a vote, and if I did, it would not hinge on how the convention is conducted. I don’t see any other candidate that I would consider voting for this year if I could, either. I continue to not be particularly broken up about not being able to vote in the government election.

    And even if I could vote in a government election, it’s highly likely the Libertarians won’t have a presidential candidate in my state this year, even as an independent. If they somehow manage to pull off an in-person convention in July, I won’t be able to go to that either. So, I’ll miss my first national convention since the disastrous one in 2006 and my first presidential one since I started going in 2000.

    “Clearly they do not take the health and safety of their party members seriously.”

    It was a narrow vote and not an easy one. I don’t think you give the people who had to make that choice enough credit.

  21. “There’s a publicly available list of 2020 Libertarian National Convention delegates. Let’s see if “Gordon Shumway” is on there. I doubt that name will be found on there. Paul is on there as an Alabama delegate, but he said he is not going because he’s in a high risk category for Coronavirus. Sounds like “Gordon Shumway” to me.”

    That’s idiotic. Someone said they may have considered voting for the LP nominee and this guarantees they won’t, and you jump to the conclusion that they are a national convention delegate? You’ve turned into something worse than a troll at this point. How does me missing a convention equate to it guaranteeing I wouldn’t vote for the LP nominee if I could? Your paranoia is twisting your mind.

    “You do realize the vast majority people who even get the virus survive, right? They should have went along as scheduled.”

    It couldn’t have gone along as scheduled. State, local and county orders precluding it are likely to be extended. Even if they are not, delegates from any number of states face their own travel restrictions which would have made it impossible for them. Taking even a 1 in 100 or 200 risk of dying is unacceptable to most people, as is the likelihood of spreading it to others, who will spread it to yet more people, etc. The number of people who suffer through debilitating and prolonged illness is much higher than the number of people who actually die, so there’s that as well.

    “Coronavirus deaths in this country are being exaggerated”

    No, they are being severely undercounted. Only people who are tested get counted in that, and many people die without being tested, often at home or in hospices or other places besides hospitals.

  22. Many coroners cannot get coronavirus tests either, so they have to count some deaths as suspected covid deaths to show any semblance of honesty. Even in this, they’re being conservative, and in many states these untested deaths aren’t counted, and in FL there’s a small scandal about these deaths being reported to the Health department, but then intentionally not released to the public for several weeks so that they’re not added during the peak.

    If Andy’s right, I’d be interested in seeing his evidence that Italy has been lying this whole time.

  26. And yet there’s still a much higher number of deaths than would normally be expected from all causes during the same time period. So, yes, there are for example fewer deaths from auto accidents and gunshots than normal. Yet still over 60,000 more deaths than would have been expected in April.

  30. Elon Musk Endorses McAfee’s Theory: Hospitals Inflating COVID-19 Deaths

    https://www.ccn.com/elon-musk-endorses-mcafees-theory-hospitals-inflating-covid-19-deaths/

    MY COMMENT: John McAfee pointed out that Tokyo Japan has more people, and is more densely populated, than New York City, and that unlike New York City, Tokyo did not do a lock down, yet during the same time frame that New York City claimed 11,000 Coronavirus deaths, Tokyo only had 93.

    McAfee also pointed out that hospitals in the USA are getting $39,000 in federal grant money for every Coronavirus death they report, so they have a financial incentive to inflate their numbers.

    McAfee says this is fishy. I say it is fishy, indeed.

  31. I see no legitimate reason for this lock down. If people who are in high risk categories want to voluntarily lock themselves down, then they should do so. Everyone else should be able to go on with their lives as normal.

    Also, if people are worried about getting sick, work on boosting your immune system. Get some sunlight. Take some vitamins. Eat healthier foods. Get some exercise.

    If your situation is so bad that none of the things I mentioned above will help much, then you shelter yourself from society, but there’s no reason for everyone else to lock down.

    The economic fallout, particularly the interruption of the food supply chain, could end up causing more deaths than Coronavirus.

  32. None of the things you mentioned will help much period, and for many people sheltering themselves from society is in no way a realistic option. Relatively few people have the economic resources to do that. People with health problems have to see doctors, pharmacies, etc. They have to get to these places, wait in waiting rooms, in many cases travel on public transport to get there and back. Many have to live with others both for economic and care reasons.

    The economic fallout is real, but would still exist with or without government restrictions. And even if you are completely correct that the restrictions do more harm than good, and you may well be, that doesn’t make an in person convention of a national political party a good idea. Furthermore, even if it’s a good idea, it doesn’t mean government restrictions will make it possible.

  33. I know I’ll survive. I never got corona kung flu and all I did was take infowars vitamins, ingest copious amounts of silver tooth paste, and take daily injections of lysol (only a tad is necessary). If push comes to shove I’m not afraid to eat my neighbors, unless they’re chinamen of course.

  36. Wearing a tin-foil hat is on par with wearing a white hood in terms of me wanting to be politically associated with a person. This is one of the biggest hurdles I see facing some Libertarian circles.

  39. “George,” if the problem of only those in high risk categories sheltering in place is as great as you claim, then I’m sure you and a lot of other people would be willing to donate money to a fund to help those people out. Heck, it would be cheaper to put all of those people on welfare, or increase all of their welfare payments, than it is doing what is being done now.

  40. Welfare doesn’t help you when you’re dead, and those of us who lost jobs in the pandemic depression are doing all we can to keep a roof over our own heads. Why are you putting my name in quotes, “Andy”?

  41. Andy accidentally left his tinfoil hat in the microwave and now he can’t eat his Hungry Man dinners.

  42. “George,” because there have been a lot of trolls here posting under fake names, and I suspect you are another one of them.

  43. Brandon, since you believe everything the government tells you to believe, why are you even in the Libertarian Party? You shpuld be a Democrat or a Republican.

  44. “Andy,” backatcha. I don’t know what I said that would make you think I am a troll. And there’s a great deal of room between believing everything the government says and outright Alex Jones nutjobbery.

  45. Andy made another tinfoil hat after the last one burnt up but he used it improperly and it fell in the toilet along with a container of vasoline.

  46. Hey don’t know Hungry Man, that shit’s some good eatin during quarantine.

  48. It was fairly obvious to even the most blind, at least a month ago, that there was only a slim to none chance of having a May convention. So the alternative plan for nominating should have been started in March and well worked out in April and set in action at the end of April, not the middle of May. The purpose of any government organization is to plan for future events, and if we are unable to do that as a party shows we are not much better than the major parties. So lets get going on this NOW. Lets show what a lot of very creative people can do. I would also suggest that as long as there is no convention, that we should open up the voting to the entire membership. Let every person who wants to run give a 1/4 page information on himself. This will be put together on a informatoin packet along with a ballot and mailed to EVERY current. A short video of each candidate should also be recorded and readily available on our national web site and facebook etc. Do accumulative voting. Top 3 or 4 candidates will go on to round 2. Again, another mailing with a mail in ballot. Each candidate will be allowed to put a single 8 x 11 information sheet in the package. Each candidate will also be allowed 20 minutes to do a video presentation. The top vote getter gets the nomination. As we would be opening the voting to all current members it will also mean more involvement with all current members and not just the handfull that can afford to attend a convention. Than of course, reschedule a live convention in July to really get our candidate rolling and to take care of other party business.

  49. Andy tried to clean the vasoline and fecal matter off the tinfoil hat but the doorbell rang and he instinctively put it on his head. When he opened the door there was a flaming bag of shit and he stepped on it to put it out and ruined his house shoes. He then realized he ruined his hair with the tinfoil hat covered in gasoline and fecal matter and so he shaved his head.

  51. Eventually Andy made a new tinfoil hat. He then found out the people who left the flaming bag of shit at his door were African Americans. So he joined the klan.

    And that’s how Andy became a tinfoil hat wearing, skinheaded, klansman.

  53. Yeah my story doesn’t explain why he started wearing the tinfoil hat so let’s go back to the start:

    Andy finally got wireless internet and started watching Alex Jones and Stefan Molyneux videos on YouTube ….

  55. Gordon you sound like one of those menacing Afro American gangbangers that left the flaming bag of shit at Andy’s door.

  56. Andy, believing everything you read on the internet is just as dangerous as believing everything the government says. If there’s evidence GREAT present that, not just random youtube videos discussing wild speculation. You are just as bad as the people who believe government without thinking, and are damaging to the party.

  57. I have no problem with the Libertarian Party switching to an internet convention for this year, but if it does, only delegates should be able to vote, and the LNC should not be exmpted from the election, as in all LNC seats, and judicial committee seats, should be up for voting, as should the presidential ticket.

  58. Where did I ever say I believed everything that is online? I never said such a thing. All information should be subject to a critical eye.

    I do know that people in government and the mainstream news media lie frequently, but this does not automatically mean that every non-mainstream source is always correct, nor does it mean that every government or mainstream media source is always wrong.

  60. “Gordon you sound like one of those menacing Afro American gangbangers that left the flaming bag of shit at Andy’s door.”

    I wish I was half that cool, but alas, I am pasty white.

  63. Demo rep: take a few deep breaths and don’t stroke out. You sound like you’re about to pop an artery.

  64. The 1963-1974 Johnson/Nixon MURDER regimes is what got the LP going —

    regardless of the many New Age MORONS / juveniles / trolls / agents with NO brains and arteries on this list.

    The current senile top hacks Biden/Trump are one result of such olde killer regimes — infected with statist death and destruction.

  65. Demo Rep hasn’t posted 35 times in this thread, so there aren’t that many junk comments.

  66. BREAKING: Funeral Directors in COVID-19 Epicenter Doubt Legitimacy of Deaths Attributed to Pandemic, Fear Numbers are ‘Padded’

    https://www.projectveritas.com/news/breaking-funeral-directors-in-covid-19-epicenter-doubt-legitimacy-of-deaths/

    From the article:

    “Project Veritas today released another video featuring conversations with funeral home directors and their staff throughout New York City questioning the number of deaths officially attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic.

    Judge Calls Bullsh*t on Relative’s COVID-19 Cause of Death

    Funeral Home: To Me all You’re Doing is Padding the Statistics…Making the Death Rates in New York City Higher than Estimated

    Staten Island Funeral Director Questions Mayor DeBlasio’s Role and Adds: I Think It’s Political

    Brooklyn Funeral Director: They Are Padding Numbers; Medical Examiners Too Busy to Investigate

    Brooklyn Funeral Director: 40-year-old Died in Home with No Symptoms Other Than Fever, Toe-Tagged as COVID-19 Victim”

  68. So how do you account for all the excess deaths this year, despite lower rates of car accidents, work accidents, etc?

  69. For any death that gets wrongly attributed to corona there are two or three corona deaths not attributed to it.

    But it’s really besides the point since the L.P. Convention presumably meets to do that party’s business, including nomination of candidates, not to commit mass civil disobedience. There are other venues more suited to that. If you’re taken to jail you won’t be provided with a convention hall there.

  71. Nobody is taking count of the numerous illiterates and hillbillies like Andy who died from injecting lysol and eating fish tank cleaner.

  72. LOL of course klansman Andy would watch Project Veritas videos. Very enlightening for simple minded hillbillies.

  75. Really stupid smears posted by trolls here to encourage people to not look at the truth bombs I am dropping.

  77. The only bombs you are dropping belong in the toilet and have no truth to them whatsoever. Please flush them immediately in a sanitary manner before they stink up the whole place any further . Your sources range all the way from faux news to Sinclair to even further on the loony conspiracy far right. I think you are the actual troll here. Btw good look in that Klan hood at the grocery store. Funny shit.

  78. https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-05-05/mutant-coronavirus-has-emerged-more-contagious-than-original

    More and worse to come. Even the drumpf administration now estimates 3,000 U.S. Deaths and 200,000 new infections a day by June 1. The first wave has not yet peaked. Birx, one of the top doctors in the white house briefings, says she had predicted up to 240,000 deaths before August all along, although the numbers appear to come from the ihme model which has since been revised down and then back up.

    Without shutdowns, social distancing and masks how many deaths would we be looking at? Hundreds of thousands? Millions?

  79. https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/05/politics/donald-trump-coronavirus-economy-models/index.html

    We’re going from bad to worse. The biogen conference in Boston set off a massive wave of infections in that area. Maybe the libertarians will try to top that. News coverage will be highly negative and increasingly so if it sets off an infection and death wave wherever the plaguefest is held. And if they manage to spoil the vote and help keep agent Orange in the white house another 4 years the country and the world can’t and shouldn’t ever forgive them. They’ll justly earn a spot as greater pariahs then lepers ever were. I guess some of them can think of nothing better.

  80. About 55 distraction posts so far ???
    —–

    Some of the BAN trolls should be on late night network TV as *comedy* attack dogs — bow wow.

    See olde Don Rickles and his many zingers — rejoin zingers — etc.
    —
    The EVIL ANTI-Democracy minority rule gerrymander regimes continue – enforced by party HACK execs/judics.
    —-
    PR
    APPV
    TOTSOP

  82. Demo Rep is at it again with his nonsense.

  83. Seems to me like everyone else but him is having an on topic discussion. Heal thyself comes to mind.

  84. Where is the list of delegates listed on the national website? I looked and did not find it.

  85. The delegate list is on the 2020 Libertarian National Convention site. There should be a link to that on LP.org, but if you can’t find it, just do a search for Libertarian National Convention 2020.

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