On March 16-17, 2024, the Libertarian Party of New York’s nominating convention will be held at the Harbor Hotel in Watkins Glen, New York. Here, we will nominate the LPNY’s stand-in candidates for President and Vice President.
A debate will be held on Sunday, with Larry Sharpe as moderator. The following are confirmed to be participating in the debate: Charles Ballay, Joseph Collins, Jr., Jacob Hornberger, Lars Mapstead, Chase Oliver, Michael Rectenwald, and Mike ter Maat. Green Party candidate Jill Stein will also participate in the debate.
Since the Libertarian National Convention will be held in late May 2024, which is at the end of the 2024 petitioning period, and so a stand-in candidate is needed to get on the ballot in order for the Libertarian Party’s Presidential nominee to be on the ballot in New York. After petitions are turned in, the stand-in candidate can withdraw, and the Committee on Vacancies can replace the stand-in candidate with the candidate nominated at the National Convention.
Petitioning begins April 16, 2024 and the filing dates are May 21-28, 2024. During that time, the Libertarian Party of New York needs over 45,000 signatures, likely in the range of 60,000 to 70,000, in order to get the stand-in candidates on the ballot and withstand any challnges to the petitions.
In leading up to this and to get a better idea of where members of the State Committee stand in regard to the stand-in candidate and in preparation for the upcoming convention, LPNY Secretary Mark Braiman had the idea to run a series of straw polls. 4 straw polls were held between March 2023 and February 2024. The results of these are as follows and there are charts on page 2 that show detailed results. The first straw poll had only a write-in line option and NOTA and everytime a candidate received at least 5 votes, their name would be on the ballot in each subsequent poll. LPNY 1st Vice-Chair Duane Whitmer and Larry Sharpe, the LPNY’s 2018 and 2022 candidate for Governor of New York each recieved over 5 votes in the first and second polls. When we held the third poll, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. also recieved over 5 votes. In the fourth straw poll, LPNY 2nd Vice-Chair Rich Purtell recieved over 5 votes.
The fifth straw poll was opened up as an approval voting poll to all members of the State Committee in adiditon to county leaders (County Affiliate officers and Acting County Chairs/County Liaisons). This was an approval voting poll, and 28 out of 125 people voted. The results were: Sharpe (12), Purtell (10), Whitmer (8), Kennedy (7), and NOTA (4). 4 indicated they do not plan on petitioning this year and there were several write-in votes. Chase Oliver received 2 and Mike ter Maat received 1 vote. Note that if either Oliver or ter Maat is chosen as the LPNY’s stand-in candidate, they would be disqualified from running for the nomination at the National Convention. The four candidates that received at least 5 votes in the previous four straw polls were included in that poll. Additional write-in votes were as follows: Christopher Olenski (1), Mark Braiman (1), and Lost Cause (1).
A Petitioning Committee was established on August 31, 2023 by the Executive Committee, for the purpose of exploring ideas and options for the statewide petitioning drive. One major idea was to recruit down ballot candidates, especially those in districts that cross counties, because their petitions would allow the Presidential and Vice-Presidnetial stand-in candidates on the ballot. If you are interested in being a down ballot candidate to help with this effort, please contact us.
