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On Thursday morning, Gerry Cohen, a former special counsel for the General Assembly, made an interesting observation on Facebook: both the Democratic and Republican parties of Wake County missed the statutory deadline to nominate candidates for the county Board of Elections this year.

And that, he wrote, meant that if Governor Cooper was successful in his effort to overturn a law passed last year reconfiguring the structure of elections boards, the Wake board would consist of two Libertarians and an unaffiliated voter. (Cooper has so far been rejected by the courts, but he is appealing.)

Heres why: the old state lawthe one Cooper wants reinstatedallows each party chair to nominate up to three registered voters for each county board. The state board, which is controlled by the governors party, then selects the members of each county board from the nominees presented by the parties but cannot appoint more than two members of the same party to the three-person board.

The law also sets a deadline; this year, it fell on June 12. The Wake GOP submitted its nominations on June 19, a week late; the Democrats on July 10, almost a month tardy.

This sluggishness would be unimportant if it werent for two more key factors: an ongoing legal battle over the structure the N.C. Board of Elections after the legislatures power grab late last year and the fact that, for the first time in history, the Wake County Libertarian Party submitted nominations for the Wake County Board of Electionsand managed to do it a month early.

Cohen says hed been following this closely because he was hoping to earn a spot on the Board of Elections and was surprised to see that the Dems missed the deadline. And since the Libertarian nominees are the only candidates who fulfill all the requirements of the old law, they might be the only candidates available for consideration. (The Libertarians, thinking ahead, also nominated an unaffiliated voter for the third spot.)

If Governor Coopers legal challenge fails, the county board would be made up of two members of the political party with the most registered voters and two members of the party with the second most registered votersi.e., Democrats and Republicans. This would render the candidates put forward by the Libertarian party ineligible.

Of the Libertarian nominees, Jeff Harrod and Amy Howard, both of Raleigh, are registered Libertarians, and Jon Byers, also of Raleigh, is independent. In a press release immediately following the nominations, Libertarian Party of North Carolina Chair Brian Irving stated, We included independents because statewide they represent nearly a third of North Carolina voters.

Byers says via email that the structure put forward by the state legislature would only weaken the power of an already anemic governor and, despite being billed as bipartisan, would really just shut out third parties and independents more than they already are. Byers says he feels representation of independent voters, who make up a third of all registered voters in Wake County, is an important step toward a democracy that reaches beyond party politics.

The state and Wake County Democratic Party offices did not respond to requests for comment, nor did the governors office. The Wake GOP referred the INDYs request for comment to the state party, which did not respond.

Excerpt from:
If Governor Cooper Wins His State Board of Elections Lawsuit, Will Wake Dems Lose? - The Independent Weekly

With season seven of the smash HBO show Game of Thrones debuting on Sunday, Reason has released another hilarious video putting a libertarian spin on the fantasy epic.

ReasonsAustin Bragg, Meredith Bragg, Andrew Heaton, and Remy Munasifihave made libertarian versions of Star Trek and Star Wars in the past. Star Trek: Libertarian Edition won a Southern California Journalism Award forBest Humor/Satire Writingof 2016.

Now Heaton and the Braggs are back. The video features Heaton and Austin Bragg playing numerous roles. Heaton plays theHand of the King attempting to convince the small council that small government and non-interventionism is the key to a more prosperous Westoros.

Heaton and Austin Bragg also play two members of the Nights Watch trying to figure out why their ancestors built a giant wall to keep out the free folk, people who marry whoever they want, live however they please, and elect leaders instead of being under the rule of someone they never approved of.

Also, watch as Heaton attempts to remember what the sayings are for House Republican and House Democrat while attending lessons with Maester Luwin, and learn that the Libertarian sigil is a porcupine humping a pile of money.

Reason releases humorous videos regularly. Some havemockedSaturday Night Live for itsHillary Clinton Hallelujah musical number, and CNN for its biased reporting.

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Reason releases hilarious parody video 'Game of Thrones: Libertarian Edition' - TheBlaze.com

State Rep. Jerry Long found agreement on Thursday with local Libertarians on his opposition to the recent tax increase and FOID cards, but he encountered differences over marijuana laws.

Long, R-Streator, took questions from the Illinois Valley Libertarian Party at the Prairie Lakes Country Club near Marseilles.

He said conservative Republicans like himself are close philosophically to Libertarians, which favor less government in the economy and social affairs.

Last week, Long voted against the state budget that included an income tax increase. He said Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan did not budge "one inch" in his negotiations with Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner.

Rauner, meanwhile, offered to support a temporary tax increase with structural economic reforms, yet Madigan got his way, Long said. That proves again Madigan controls Illinois, Long said.

"Michael Madigan is the problem in Illinois. He drove Illinois into the hole," Long said.

Temporarily, he said, the tax increase will bring more revenue to the state. Long-term, though, it will drive more and more people out of Illinois, reducing the state's tax base, he said.

"A lot of people can't pack up and leave. Farmers can't pack up. How can you pack up your acres and leave?" he said.

On another issue, Long said he supported laws to decriminalize marijuana below half an ounce of marijuana, assessing a small fine in those cases. When people have more than that amount, he said, they're likely distributing.

"No one has ever overdosed on marijuana," one Libertarian said.

The local party's chairwoman, Jenae Wise, pushed Long to support marijuana legalization.

"It would bring so much revenue. That is undeniable," she said.

Long asked, "You don't feel marijuana is the gateway to other drugs?"

The Libertarians said they didn't.

Long said he would be happy to revisit the issue.

"We'll talk about it a little bit later," he said.

Sunday car sales: Long said he was open to allowing car sales on Sundays. State law requires car dealerships be closed on Sundays, a law that dealers convinced the Legislature to support decades ago.

Fireworks: Long said he wouldn't mind legalizing fireworks.

FOID cards: Long said he is pushing a bill to ban the cards, which have long been required of gun owners. But he said Madigan and the Democrats prevented the legislation from going anywhere. "The purpose was to curb crime. It hasn't done that. It gives the state strength over individuals," Long said.

Pensions: Long said the state needs to keep the pension promises it has made to government workers. But he said the state needed to find a way to curb pension spending.

Politics: More Republicans need to be elected, Long said. That's the only way to reduce Madigan's power, he said.

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Long, Libertarians have common ground - MyWebTimes.com

PHOENIX A federal judge has rebuffed a bid by the Libertarian Party to kill an Arizona law even its sponsors concede was designed to make it harder for minor party candidates to get on the general election ballot.

Judge David Campbell acknowledged Monday the 2015 law sharply increases the number of signatures that Libertarian candidates need to qualify for ballot status. In some cases, the difference is more than 20 times the old requirement.

The result was that only one Libertarian candidate qualified for the ballot in 2016, and none made it to the general election. By contrast, there were 25 in 2004, 19 in 2008 and 18 in 2012.

But Campbell said the new hurdle is not unconstitutionally burdensome. And the judge accepted the arguments that the higher signature requirements ensure that candidates who reach the November ballot have some threshold of support.

But Libertarian Party Chairman Michael Kielsky said the judge ignored not just the higher burden but the games that the Republican-controlled legislature played in making 2015 the change for their own political purposes.

The Republicans set out to get the Libertarians off the ballot and the Republicans succeeded, Kielsky said. And now, Judge Campbell has said, That's OK.

Kielsky is not just spouting party rhetoric.

In pushing for the change, GOP lawmakers made no secret they do not want Libertarian Party candidates in the race, contending that a vote for a Libertarian is a vote that would otherwise go to a Republican. As proof, some cited the 2012 congressional race.

Republican Jonathan Paton lost the CD 1 race to Democrat Ann Kirkpatrick by 9,180 votes. But Libertarian Kim Allen picked up 15,227 votes votes that Rep. J.D. Mesnard, R-Chandler, argued during floor debate likely would have gone to Paton.

And in CD 9, Democrat Kyrsten Sinema defeated Republican Vernon Parker by 10,251 votes, with Libertarian Powell Gammill tallying 16,620.

And if the point was lost, Mesnard made the issue more personal for colleagues, warning them that they, too, could find themselves aced out of a seat if they don't change the signature requirements.

I can't believe we wouldn't see the benefit of this, he said during a floor speech.

The way the legislature accomplished this was to change the rules.

Prior to 2015, would-be candidates qualified for the ballot by getting the signatures of one-half of one percent of all party members within a given area. So for a Republican seeking statewide office, that translated out to 5,660 signatures.

The new formula changed that to one-quarter of a percent but for all people who could sign a candidate's petition. That adds political independents, who outnumber Democrats and are running neck-in-neck with Republicans, to the equation.

Under the new formula, a Republican statewide candidate in 2016 needed 5,790 signatures.

But the effect on minor parties is more profound,

Using that pre-2016 formula, a Libertarian could run for statewide office with petitions bearing just 134 names, one-half percent of all those registered with the party. But the new formula, which takes into account all the independents, required a Libertarian trying to get on a statewide ballot to get 3,023 signatures.

To put that in perspective, that is closed to 12 percent of all registered Libertarians. By contrast, the statewide burden for a GOP candidate, based on the number of registered Republicans, remains close to that one-half of one percent of all adherents.

It's B.S., Kielsky said. It's completely perverse.

But Campbell said there is nothing unconstitutional about the higher requirement to limit the field to bona fide candidates who had some chance of actually winning.

If a candidate was not required to show any threshold of support through votes or petition signatures, she could win her primary and reach the general ballot with no significant modicum of support at all, Campbell continued. And in the case of Libertarians, who often run unopposed in their party's primary, a candidate could win a spot on the general election ballot with only one vote in such a primary.

Anyway, the judge said, Libertarian candidates can now seek out support to get on the ballot from independents, a pool totaling more than one million voters in Arizona.

Kielsky said that misses the point.

That means we have to appeal to things that the independents care about but not necessarily the Libertarians care about to be a Libertarian candidate, he said. The distinction of being a Libertarian is diluted, if not lost.

And Kielsky called the requirement for a modicum of support a red herring. He said if Libertarians were not picking up significant votes, the GOP-controlled legislature would not have changed the law to keep them off the ballot.

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Law requiring more signatures for Libertarian candidates remains - Arizona Daily Sun

For the fourth election cycle in a row, the Libertarian Party of Arkansas has been officially recognized as a new political party. It needed 10,000 signatures to be able to put its candidates on the 2018 ballot. The Arkansas Secretary of States office has certified that 12,749 out of 15,108 signatures were determined valid.

The party had 90 days to collect signatures. Libertarians submitted them on June 12th. In a statement, LPA Treasurer Stephen Wait said it came at a cost of over $25,000 in addition a lot of volunteer hours.

Political parties in Arkansas need to garner at least 3-percent of the vote in either the governors race or a presidential election to retain automatic ballot access for the next election. In 2016, Presidential candidate Gary Jonson garnered 2.6 percent and in 2014 gubernatorial hopeful Frank Gilbert received 1.9 percent support.

Republican Governor Asa Hutchinson has declared he will run for the states top office again in 2018. No Democrats have announced at this juncture. Libertarian Mark West is seeking his partys nomination. West took in 23.7 percent of the 2016 vote for the U.S. House seat for District 1 in east Arkansas.

The rest is here:
Libertarian Party of Arkansas Gets 2018 Ballot Access | KUAR - KUAR