Posted on 08/24/2005 2:45:05 PM PDT by Libloather
Party says it will sue to get on ballot
Libertarians lose place for failing to get enough votes last November
JIM MORRILL
Staff Writer
Posted on Tue, Aug. 23, 2005
Leaders of North Carolina's Libertarian Party said they'll challenge the state's election laws in court after the state elections board decertified the party Monday.
The board voted unanimously to deny the Libertarians an automatic place on state ballots after the party failed to get enough votes last November to qualify.
The decision effectively erases the names of Libertarian candidates from municipal ballots this fall, including five in Mecklenburg County. Two Libertarians, Pamela Guignard and Rusty Sheridan, were to face off in a Sept. 27 city primary.
Now they and the other Libertarians would have to run as write-in candidates.
But Libertarian leaders say they'll go to court.
"I'm angry," said party chairman Thomas Hill. "My main concern is our candidates in Winston-Salem and Charlotte ... We're going to do whatever we can to keep our candidates on the ballot."
Executive director Sean Haugh said the party will challenge state law, including the rule that a party get 10 percent of the votes in the previous gubernatorial or presidential race to stay on the ballot. It's one of the nation's most restrictive laws.
"We're going to ask that the entirety of North Carolina's ballot-access law be struck down," Haugh told the Observer.
Barring a court order, the state's 13,006 registered Libertarians will get letters from local elections boards saying they can re-register with another party or as Unaffiliated. Libertarians can qualify for the 2006 ballot by getting 70,000 petition signatures by next summer. In the meantime, candidates are in limbo.
Justin Cardone, running at-large for Charlotte City Council, said he's waiting to see what the party and courts do. "It's difficult enough to run as a Libertarian," he said. "Running as a write-in is next to impossible."
Why not just run as a Democrat? They're practically the same from my point of view.
why?
so they can get about 13,000 votes altogether and be lagging well behind in 3rd or 4th....
Don't they have better ways to waste money?
I wonder which living room they dreamt this up in....
"so they can get about 13,000 votes altogether and be lagging well behind in 3rd or 4th..."
If the "big L" Libertarians ever wise up on immigration and defense, you might just be surprised at how many nominal "Republicans" turn out to actually be Libertarian.
As far as ballot access goes, recall that a Republican couldn't even get the time of day in most of the south, less than a generation ago.
I have some libertarian leanings. I admit as much.
However, this country is always going to have a 2 party mindset.
I dont see it changing.....
Do you have any idea what you are talking about or did you just decide to run your mouth for the hell of it. Educate yourself and then tell us your opinions.
Nope, I am not a Republican.
This is MY affiliation:
http://www.constitutionparty.com/
"vote for a real conservative from a third party. Wake up!"
Yup. Wake up, and look up the word "conservative."
I'll work on that. Thanks.
I think it would change pretty quick if instant runoff voting became legal.
and the chances of that happening are......?
"I dont see it changing..."
Maybe, maybe not. But, when both of the major parties are so plainly pursuing an internationalist agenda, as opposed to representing the interests of the voting public, you're going to see the rise of something to replace at least one of them. Libertarian, Constitution, or yet to be determined. Keep in mind how well Reform ran, prior to disintegrating due to Perot's weirdness. It's far from impossible.
Not unreasonable. The most likely method is by a local referendum. Once it gets put on the ballot, I think people will agree that it makes sense. The arguments are simple. Say for example, you love the Libertarian Party but hate the Democrats. Currently you would have to vote Republican to ensure that the Democrats don't get power. With IRV you would select your Libertarian Party candidate as your first choice and your Republican candidate as your second choice. In this way, your vote for the Libertarian Party couldn't be used to help the Democrats, since in each runoff the lowest scoring candidate gets dropped. If the first runoff gives the Republicans 50 votes, the Democrats 55, and the Libertarian Party 10 votes, since no party has a majority yet, another runoff must be performed. Then the second runoff might be 58 votes for the Republicans and 57 for the Democrats, giving the Republicans the office (your vote now becomes a Republican vote because your candidate was dropped).
Once enough states use it, there will gain momentum for a Constitutional amendment. It will be especially popular among Republicans because they remember how Ross Perot lost the election for George H. W. Bush. If Perot would not have run, Clinton probably would have never been the President.
"This is MY affiliation"
Is it complete folly, to think that the Libertarian and Constitution Parties could hammer out an alliance based upon common ground, in order to make some headway? For instance, the two vary wildly on abortion, but are in complete agreement about defunding it.
There is an interesting what if question..
If Bush 41 gets re-elected and Clinton doesn't win, what happens in 1996?
My guess is President Cheney :)
Actually, I need to correct myself. I don't think a Constitutional amendment is technically required.
"Yet still far from likely too..."
I'm sure there are those who said the same thing, back in the day, about "W" being elected president.
Yeah. IRV would really help the Republican Party. Roughly 20% of people consider themselves liberal, 35% conservative, and the rest undecided (If I recall correctly from a poll I saw). Yet, by manipulating elections, and divisions among people who consider themselves conservative, the liberals have been able to get a disproportionate number of seats in all offices.
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