On October 26, U.S. District Court Judge Lance Walker issued a final order in Baines v Bellows, 1:19cv-509. It reiterates that it is unconstitutional for a state to eliminate a party’s registered members, just because it goes off the ballot. It also orders the Secretary of State to keep the Libertarian Party as a choice on voter registration forms. But it declines to put the party on the ballot for 2024. It notes that even though the court had extended the party’s qualified status for the 2022 election, no Libertarian ran for any federal or state partisan office in Maine in 2022.
Soo– another LPME effort will be required to do an unequal ballot access petition for 2024 ???
IE – one more LOSS due to LP MORON lawyers ???
This coming from a guy who never won a ballot access case.
Richard,
Will you please list LP Ballot Access for 2022 in your November issue?
I believe the LP is NOT on the 2022 ballot in Virginia, Kentucky, Minnesota, and New York. Is that correct?
Are there any other States?
When I queried LP Chair Angela McCardle, about National LP efforts to help with State Ballot Access, she responded that they won’t help States that don’t ask, and for example, Virginia didn’t ask because they had no candidates, so what was the point? I disagree with this, as I discuss below, but first my credentials.
With the late Naudeen Beek, I co-ran the successful 1979 North Carolina Ballot Drive to put Ed Clark on the Ballot. When he failed to get enough votes to retain Ballot Access, she and I again ran the successful 1981 NC Ballot Drive. In both years, it was one of the four toughest in the nation, along with Oklahoma, Illinois, and New York.
In 1988, I hand-crafted a button that said, “Every State in ‘88” and gave it to Ron Paul at the Nominating Convention. During his acceptance speech, Ron pulled it out, held it up, read it off — and got a standing ovation. The only one he got. Libertarians CARE about Ballot Drives! Later, his assistant, Nadia Hates, refused to write the checks to keep Ron’s promise. I believe we failed to make the ballot in four states that year. (Nadia was later discovered to have been embezzling funds from Ron’s newsletter, but he refused to prosecute.)
More: with Michael Cloud, I co-wrote the most successful LP fundraising letter to that date. Ed Clark signed it, LP Chair Mary Gingell mailed it, and it raised $65,000 in eight weeks — from only 8,000 LP members! Libertarians CARE about Ballot Drives!
Here’s what I think would be better policies for the National LP:
1. Some States grant permanent Ballot Access if you have enough voters registered as Libertarians. (Of course, some states do not register voters by Party, so that option is not possible.) Nevada, for example, requires 1%. We have 0.88%. Alaska and Maine are also close. Rather than do a Ballot Drive every 2 or 4 years, why not do a Registration Drive if you are close? In business jargon, spend some Capex once to save Opex forever. That’s what California did.
2. “The State didn’t ask us”! Angela. Did you ask them? Were YOU pro-active?
3. “They had no candidates.” Catch-22. If you get ballot access, it’s easy to get candidates — especially among Ballot Drive volunteers.
4 Who pays? Good question. I despise welfare States. I prefer matching where possible. The matching unit should be signatures, not dollars. Sweat equity is much more satisfying than just writing a check. I’ve personally collected signatures in Massachusetts, Georgia, and North Carolina. Unpaid volunteer.
4. One standard by which to judge the National LP Leadership is whether they get 50 States plus DC on the 2024 Ballot. It’s been done before. If they do it, kudos. If they don’t, replace them.
Just my two cents.
Craig Franklin
Thanks for your posting Craig and giving us some great history of the Libertarian Party. I agree that ballot access is very important.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Section_230
Get ready for total censoring of ALL internet stuff —
esp after attempted murder of Pelosi husband in SF, CA —
ie the statist commie/fascist MIND CONTROL freak empire striking back — to about 1770.
https://www.mtsu.edu/first-amendment/article/611/white-v-nicholls
White v. Nicholls, 44 U.S. 266 (1845)
baaaack to the past coming soon — in connection with Sec 230 above ???
How many States have the semi-olde — truth is defense for libel — esp re govt hacks ???
State of mind = FACT question for juries — intentional / UN-intentional.
https://www.scotusblog.com/2022/10/a-guide-to-the-amicus-briefs-in-the-affirmative-action-cases/
14-1 EP cl — univ racist stuff — about a mere 100 briefs
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/30/us/supreme-court-affirmative-action-brown-board-education.html
Brown 1954 – dead or alive ???