N.Y. Libertarian Party launches petition drive for ballot – Spectrum News

The New York state Libertarian Party is gearing up to get their presidential candidate on the ballot in the Empire State. Due to new ballot access provisions, the Libertarians and other parties without automatic ballot access will need to collect 45,000 signatures between April 16 and May 28 to get their party on the ballot.

The Libertarian Party has placed a candidate on the ballot for president in New York every cycle since 1976 with their best performance on their own line coming in 2020 with Jo Jorgenson receiving over 60,000 votes. In 2016, the partys ticket, which included former Massachusetts Governor and New York gubernatorial candidate Bill Weld, was cross endorsed by the Independence Party and received over 176,000 votes.

Candidates from a party that does not have ballot access must obtain 45,000 signatures or 1% of the total number of votes in the last gubernatorial election, whichever is less. At least 500 signatures each must come from 13 congressional districts.

Currently, the only parties in New York state that have automatic ballot access are the Democratic, Republican, Working Families, and Conservative parties. The Working Families Party has typically cross endorsed the Democratic candidate and the Conservative Party has done the same with the Republicans.

In 2020, the Green and Independence parties placed their own candidates on the ballot, Howie Hawkins and Brock Pierce respectively. This cycle, Dr. Jill Stein, the Green Partys nominee in 2012 and 2016, is leading in her partys primary and the Independence Party has slowed their activity with their party website not being active. The Greens will need to go through the ballot petitioning process as well.

Incumbent President Joe Biden and his predecessor, Donald Trump, are the presumptive nominees for the Democratic and Republican parties.

The Libertarians will select their official candidates for president and vice president at their national convention which will be held in Washington, D.C. at the end of May. Chase Oliver, the partys nominee for U.S. Senate in Georgia in 2022, has won five state primaries but other candidates for the nomination include 2000 vice presidential nominee Art Oliver and former party Vice Chair Joshua Smith.

Due to New Yorks petitioning process happening before the partys nominating convention, the party will be using stand-in candidates, which will step aside for the official candidates. The stand-in candidates will be former gubernatorial nominee Larry Sharpe and the partys second Vice Chair Rich Purtell. Sharpe briefly ran for the partys vice presidential nomination in 2016 and 2020.

The next major election in New York will be closed primaries for state and federal legislative offices on June 25with early voting running from June 15-23. The general election is set for Nov. 5with early voting running from Oct. 26 to Nov. 3.

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N.Y. Libertarian Party launches petition drive for ballot - Spectrum News