Delegates to the Oklahoma Libertarian Party state convention have voted 17-13 for a closed primary for 2020. In Oklahoma, the election law lets each party decide for itself whether to let independents vote in the primary. Thanks to Chris Powell for this news.
It should be noted that this vote of delegates to the last party convention, taken by e-mail ballot, was the result of a procedural challenge to the vote of the state executive committee that was 5-4 in favor of allowing unaffiliated voters to participate. The procedural challenge was ruled out of order by the chair but appeal was made to the judiciary committee but that resulted in questioning of the legitimacy of the judiciary committee which was then ruled to not have been properly installed.
So–
What part of the OK LP regime *officers* are *legal* ???
Where is that LP Model Bylaws ??? – after a mere about 50 years.
What are the pros and cons of the OKLP having a closed primary v. an open primary? I’d think that an open primary would convey a more welcoming message to the electorate at large, but at the risk of shenanigans inside the primary. Was this the thinking? Any other considerations?
There are over 330,000 registered Independents in Oklahoma to about 10,000 registered Libertarians. Are there 10,000 closet Libertarians registered as Independents? Maybe, but there are 320,000 who have reasons to not register as Libertarians before cause they do not regard themselves as such. Why they have any voice in selecting Libertarian candidates in a state compulsory primary election?
See for yourself can appraise the risks. Updated stats will be published in January of 2020.
https://www.ok.gov/elections/documents/20190115%20-%20Registration%20By%20County%20(vr2420).pdf
Regarding the OKLP Judicial Committee: I was appointed Chair of the OKLP JC with the authority to appoint members who met certain qualifications who would then fill all remaining vacancies. There is no time limit on providing that list to the JC Chair and I was derelict in not insisting it be provided promptly nor did anyone else take installing the JC seriously enough.
LP members in OK and everywhere have many ideas on priorities for party business. Hence, we have a national convention adjourned in the midst of an election which creates controversy over the status of the membership of the JC for those persons for whom delegates actually voted for before the abortion.
Libertarians need to commit to taking care of party business before arguing about candidates that might bring hypothetical winning results despite rigged ballots.
Would bringing in Independents who do not want participate in political parties help with these problems?
There are nearly 11 thousand registered Libertarians at this point, all of whom just checked a box on a government form. All but a handful are actual current party members, probably only about 1% have ever signed agreement with the non-aggression principle, and very likely less than 5% have even heard of the NAP.
The idea that closing the primary to voters who checked one box instead of another will be protective when the party has zero control over who checks what box and thus has zero control over who can vote in a partisan primary as well as who can run under the party label is laughable.
Great work guys, no candidates were filed with the Oklahoma Election Board
In case you haven’t figured it out yet, this is why there are so many independent voters and not so many registered Libertarians. You want to keep your exclusivity and I can’t count on you to put forward a viable candidate so I keep my options open. Isnt that freedom?