The North Carolina Libertarian Party will ask the State Board of Elections to conduct a Libertarian Presidential Preference Primary which may be the first in the state’s history.
The party’s executive committee directed Acting Chair J.J. Summerell to make the request which must be sent to the SBOE by February 7. The candidates listed will be R. Lee Wrights, who was born in Winston-Salem but now lives in Texas, Roger Gary of Texas, R. J. Harris of Oklahoma, Gary Johnson or New Mexico, Carl Person of New York, and Bill Still of Virginia.
However, the N.C. primary will be held three days after the Libertarian Party nominates its presidential and vice presidential candidates at a national convention in Las Vegas May 2 to 6. The North Carolina primary is May 8.
California will also hold a Libertarian primary after the party’s national convention, but the state party has no say in that decision under California law. That ballot will include nine names, according to Ballot Access News.
It is unclear what action the SBOE will take. The election law statute requires the chairs of political parties recognized by the state to submit a list of names for the primary ballot of those candidates “generally advocated and recognized in the news media throughout the United States or in North Carolina.” It also says the SBOE “shall” nominate as primary candidates all those names submitted.
George,
The process for nominating the LP Pres. Candidate currently only recognizes those people who can attend the convention and cast a vote as a delegate largely ignoring voters who wish to cast a vote, but not (or can’t) attend the convention.
This past election in Charlotte, NC we had over 6,000 people cast a vote for the libertarian candidate for City Council while there were only 1,000 registered libertarians. That says people may not be active, but wish to vote and elect or nominate candidates. This was also a low turn-out election.
The LP Pres. nomination process needs to be more open. People are even less likely to vote LP if they feel the candidates are chosen by only a few.
@4 Out of curiosity, what is the unhappiness, and how does the primary do what you say?
It’s probably also free advertising for the thousands or millions of North Carolina primary voters who come in to be asked “Do you want the Democrat ballot, the Republican ballot, or the Libertarian?” Presumably, a list of all those voting Libertarian would be made available by the Secretary of State’s office that could be purchased and used for party building and GOTV in November.
LPNC is requesting the primary for 3 reasons:
1. To indicate to LP National that they are unhappy with the current nomination process
2. To gauge voter turnout and support over the entire state (especially libertarians or unaffiliated voters who won’t fly to Vegas but want a say in the process)
3. To take advantage of the publicity and press that may result from the process
Also, there is already a primary vote scheduled on that date, so the cost to the taxpayers will be minimal.
@1 My guess is that they are hoping to get some media/publicity out of it.
When you open the doors to gov’t minded people they OVERLOOK the COST to TAXPAYERS.
If you gonna hold it then where OH where is the name of your friend and mine, Jim LIBERTARIAN Burns ?! The man is a candidate for POTUS and he is a Libertarian. Tighten up, NC (& CA) LP !!!
Is there a reason why they’re requesting a primary? If it’s for more than just the presidential race, then that would be understandable, but this article only mentions presidential preference primaries.