Progress Report: Lawsuit Filed!
Our lawsuit has been filed! Wednesday afternoon, the Libertarian Party of NC filed suit against the NC State Board of Elections and the local boards in Forsyth and Mecklenburg Counties. We anticipate our request for a temporary restraining order to prevent our candidates in Charlotte and Winston-Salem from being taken off the ballot will be heard in the next couple days.
Thank you for your help! On Sunday I asked you to contribute towards our legal fees and you responded with over $2600 in donations. It was far and away our most successful email request for funds ever. That allowed us to pay the first installment on the retainer for our attorneys. Thank you!
I’m excited about our lawsuit! Our argument is very simple. North Carolina has two sets of elections laws, one for Democrats and Republicans and another for everybody else. That cannot be allowed to continue under the NC Constitution. Our main goals are to eliminate the excessively high signature requirement to get on the ballot and the retention requirement to stay on it. But we are also asking the court to strike down all other laws which give Democrats and Republicans special privileges over other voters. Here are just a few examples:
* Only Democrats and Republicans are allowed to be appointed to the State and County Boards of Elections.
* Only Democrats and Republicans are allowed to select precinct officials at the polls.
* Only Democrats and Republicans are given a guarantee for public space for their conventions and other meetings.
* Only Democrats and Republicans are allowed to have their candidates listed at the top of the ballot.
This is not your typical ballot access lawsuit. For the first time, the entire basis of our election law will be under scrutiny. What we have now is a system that is run by and for the benefit of two political parties. What we need, and what is demanded under the NC Constitution, is a system where political parties only serve to help all voters participate fully in our elections.
While we were able to cover the down payment on our lawsuit costs, we estimate the entire project will cost anywhere between $40,000 and $80,000. Please help us carry this important lawsuit forward!
Meanwhile, we still have to petition in order to get the Libertarian Party back on the ballot for 2006. We can’t expect any legal relief in time for next year’s elections, so we must not ignore our petitioning efforts.
Fortunately there are many fantastic opportunities to gather lots of petition signatures right in front of us. One-stop voting for local primaries begins today and runs through October 8th. Primary elections are held on October 11th. If you are looking for registered voters to sign our petition, what better location is there than the polls themselves? Please check with your county board of elections to find out where one-stop voting is taking place in your county.
This is also Fair season, and Libertarians will be at them all. The next big event is the Dixie Classic Fair in Winston-Salem, which runs from September 30-October 9. We need many volunteers to staff our booth, gather petition signatures and tell the fairgoers about the Libertarian Party. Please contact Lee Wrights at carolinnus@aol.com to find out what shifts are available, or visit the Forsyth County LP website.
We’ll also be at the State Fair again in Raleigh, October 14-23. We need a minimum of two people, and preferably three or four for each shift. Not only is the State Fair far and away one of our best petitioning and outreach opportunities, it’s a whole lot of fun! Please contact LPNC Outreach Director Jim Pitts at outreach@lpnc.org to find out when you can help.
We also need volunteers for Durham’s Centerfest on the weekend of October 8-9. Please contact Sean Haugh at director@lpnc.org to find out what shifts are available for that fun event.
Besides fairs and elections, there are many other great opportunities to circulate the petition. Please visit our ballot access page to download the petition and learn the best locations and methods for petitioning.
Whether you can collect signatures or not, we also need to hire many paid petitioners to complete this task. North Carolina ballot access laws are so strict that we have to spend as much as $125,000 just to get the signatures needed to get back on the ballot. We have to complete this process by June 1, 2006, to get Libertarian candidates back on the ballot for 2006 and 2008.
Please make your best possible ballot access donation now here so we can continue to move forward. Thanks!
These are monumental tasks ahead of us, but we must complete them successfully to continue the fight for Liberty at the ballot box in North Carolina. Everything we accomplish is based on a $100 donation here or a handful of signatures there. Your individual contribution may not seem like much to you, but taken together we have already proven many times that Libertarians can amass the resources needed to win these fights. Now we need to do it again!
If you can donate over the website, please visit:
http://www.lpnc.org/contrib.html
If you have signatures to send in or prefer to write a check, please send them to our mailing address:
Libertarian Party of NC
1821 Hillandale Rd #1B-253
Durham NC 27705
Thank you!
To subscribe or unsubscribe to LPNC Announcements, please reply to this message or send email to director@lpnc.org.
Thank you for your help! On Sunday I asked you to contribute towards our legal fees and you responded with over $2600 in donations. It was far and away our most successful email request for funds ever. That allowed us to pay the first installment on the retainer for our attorneys. Thank you!
I’m excited about our lawsuit! Our argument is very simple. North Carolina has two sets of elections laws, one for Democrats and Republicans and another for everybody else. That cannot be allowed to continue under the NC Constitution. Our main goals are to eliminate the excessively high signature requirement to get on the ballot and the retention requirement to stay on it. But we are also asking the court to strike down all other laws which give Democrats and Republicans special privileges over other voters. Here are just a few examples:
* Only Democrats and Republicans are allowed to be appointed to the State and County Boards of Elections.
* Only Democrats and Republicans are allowed to select precinct officials at the polls.
* Only Democrats and Republicans are given a guarantee for public space for their conventions and other meetings.
* Only Democrats and Republicans are allowed to have their candidates listed at the top of the ballot.
This is not your typical ballot access lawsuit. For the first time, the entire basis of our election law will be under scrutiny. What we have now is a system that is run by and for the benefit of two political parties. What we need, and what is demanded under the NC Constitution, is a system where political parties only serve to help all voters participate fully in our elections.
While we were able to cover the down payment on our lawsuit costs, we estimate the entire project will cost anywhere between $40,000 and $80,000. Please help us carry this important lawsuit forward!
Meanwhile, we still have to petition in order to get the Libertarian Party back on the ballot for 2006. We can’t expect any legal relief in time for next year’s elections, so we must not ignore our petitioning efforts.
Fortunately there are many fantastic opportunities to gather lots of petition signatures right in front of us. One-stop voting for local primaries begins today and runs through October 8th. Primary elections are held on October 11th. If you are looking for registered voters to sign our petition, what better location is there than the polls themselves? Please check with your county board of elections to find out where one-stop voting is taking place in your county.
This is also Fair season, and Libertarians will be at them all. The next big event is the Dixie Classic Fair in Winston-Salem, which runs from September 30-October 9. We need many volunteers to staff our booth, gather petition signatures and tell the fairgoers about the Libertarian Party. Please contact Lee Wrights at carolinnus@aol.com to find out what shifts are available, or visit the Forsyth County LP website.
We’ll also be at the State Fair again in Raleigh, October 14-23. We need a minimum of two people, and preferably three or four for each shift. Not only is the State Fair far and away one of our best petitioning and outreach opportunities, it’s a whole lot of fun! Please contact LPNC Outreach Director Jim Pitts at outreach@lpnc.org to find out when you can help.
We also need volunteers for Durham’s Centerfest on the weekend of October 8-9. Please contact Sean Haugh at director@lpnc.org to find out what shifts are available for that fun event.
Besides fairs and elections, there are many other great opportunities to circulate the petition. Please visit our ballot access page to download the petition and learn the best locations and methods for petitioning.
Whether you can collect signatures or not, we also need to hire many paid petitioners to complete this task. North Carolina ballot access laws are so strict that we have to spend as much as $125,000 just to get the signatures needed to get back on the ballot. We have to complete this process by June 1, 2006, to get Libertarian candidates back on the ballot for 2006 and 2008.
Please make your best possible ballot access donation now here so we can continue to move forward. Thanks!
These are monumental tasks ahead of us, but we must complete them successfully to continue the fight for Liberty at the ballot box in North Carolina. Everything we accomplish is based on a $100 donation here or a handful of signatures there. Your individual contribution may not seem like much to you, but taken together we have already proven many times that Libertarians can amass the resources needed to win these fights. Now we need to do it again!
If you can donate over the website, please visit:
http://www.lpnc.org/contrib.html
If you have signatures to send in or prefer to write a check, please send them to our mailing address:
Libertarian Party of NC
1821 Hillandale Rd #1B-253
Durham NC 27705
Thank you!
To subscribe or unsubscribe to LPNC Announcements, please reply to this message or send email to director@lpnc.org.
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