Richard Winger has reported over at Ballot Access News that Bob Barr is having some trouble filing in Louisiana. Due to Hurricane Gustauve and the resulting power outages and flooding, the Secretary of State’s office in Baton Rouge was closed until September 6th.
However, on September 9, the Secretary of State indicated he would not accept late filings. As a result, Bob Barr (Libertarian), Brian Moore (Socialist), and Ted Weill (Reform Party) are off the ballot. This is especially ironic in the case of Barr and Weill, since the Libertarian and Reform Parties are ballot-qualified. At least one of these campaigns has already found an attorney to try to resolve the situation. Louisiana has no real state interest whatsoever in being rigid on the deadline, because the state hasn’t held its congressional primary yet. Furthermore, since no petition is needed, there are no signatures to check.
I have confirmed this fact with a well-placed source within the Louisiana Libertarian Party, who claimed he was told by the chairman of that party that they have not yet presented their paperwork. When I spoke with the source yesterday he said that they did not have all of their paperwork together. Their elector in Shreveport had gone out of contact and they were having trouble finding a replacement. I have not confirmed wether they eventually found an elector for that district or not, but they confirmed that if they cannot place Barr/Root on the ballot, they will back the Ron Paul/Barry Goldwater Jr. ticket which was placed on the ballot by the Louisiana Taxpayer’s Party.
UPDATE: The LALP chairman has posted in the comments below that endorsing the Paul/Goldwater Jr. ticket is not allowed per the national LP bylaws.
Pathetic!
All you loser parties who couldn’t file, and yet Trent here could.
You don’t deserve to be on the ballot, losers!
Mr. Monteleone,
I’d love to get the full report,whenever it is ready.
Correction,
I’m off to Louisiana in a few minutes for another candidate who is attempting a late filing.
If the Barr people need someone to run around, get forms from electors and deliver them to the state office, call Mark Pickens at 720-318-8297. We will not have internet.
If anyone wants to communicate this info to Barr HQ, LA LP, LPHQ, or whoever needs to be contacted, go ahead and have them call us. If they don’t call us, it’s all good.
I may be in Louisiana later today. Apparently the SOS there is either allowing some late filings, or one of the parties there is going to do one anyway and then sue them.
If I end up going down there, I can be reached through my associate Jake at 907-250-5503, or on my number for those of you who have it (if we are friends on facebook, it’s on there).
How pathetic that the “fictitious” (as its been described) Louisiana Taxpayers Party could get on the ballot, but not the LP! Ha, I love it.
Good. The fewer ballots the hijacked ticket of Barr-Root is on, the better it is for liberty.
Trent,
Thank you for the correction.
Though I have yet to speak with your source about this article, I have determined who it is. Yes he is well respected in our circles, but this is quite a blemish. We are still in the process of securing that ballot line, and giving out partial information that doesn’t tell the whole story while a legal issue is ongoing is not what one would call proper or smart. As for your roll, you are just reporting what info you have. I have no problem with that. After this is finalized, I will be happy to give you a full report.
Yes, it is easy to get on the ballot here, and we should have gotten it done, but there were some circumstances which made it a bit more difficult for us this time around. And yes, the SoS office is at the root of some of the problem. (I don’t think it is intentional) I will elaborate in my report.
As for the current status, subsection E of sec 1253, LARS title 18 provides a 72 hour window extension for a national party to certify electors when the state affiliate fails to do so.
It is my understanding that since the SoS office was closed from last Tuesday till Monday, and since they moved the deadline to Monday for state affiliates to certify, that then means the LNC has until Thursday at 5pm to do the certification themselves. That is in process at the moment, and in fact will be received by the SoS this afternoon (Wed) a full 24 hours before the expiration of that window. I can provide an update later this evening on how the LNC filing was received.
Yah, Dardenne can go fuck himself…
What was his role in closing the federal primaries anyway?
I’m actually starting to believe it’s possible that Nader may be on more ballots than Barr.
I never would have guessed that two months ago.
The people who put Ron Paul/Barry Goldwater Jr. on the ballot did it in 5 days.
Batman,
To be fair, they just had a hurricane and the SoS is being completely unreasonable.
$500 and 9 electors forms.
No LP candidate on the ballot in La.? What do you need, $800 and 0 signatures to get on the ballot?
At least they still have that nice hotel…
“And Mr. Hill, I don’t know who your contact is in the LPL, but as Chairman I can say publicly, that our State Central Committee has NOT addressed this issue and so your statement of ‘definitive’ is false. Please issue a retraction.”
I never suggested that your State Central Committee had addressed the issue, or even that you had. My comment, which is not part of the news posting, simply outlined what I had HEARD from other member of the LALP. You’re welcome to tell us all why it isnt true–but it is still what I have heard.
“Im hearing, definitively, that the LP will endorse the Ron Paul/Barry Goldwater ticket if they cant get on. Pretty good news, gives us a big activist base.”
Adriene,
My contact should probably remain anonymous in light of your displeasure with the information he spread–but he’s well placed and well-respected amongst both Paul activists and the LALP. I should have said, “former vice-chair” of the LALP,instead of “chairman”–but he claimed to have spoken with you about the issue. I will rewrite the article to reflect this.
However, a retraction is not really in order. I wrote what information I had, which you have not actually proven to be incorrect. In fact,you have not even claimed anything in the article is wrong except that I did not talk to YOU. As I said before, I’ll be happy to re-write the article reflecting the fact that this info is second-hand from a good source,rather than a primary source.
As the Chairman of the LPL, I would respectfully request that you remove any reference to any alleged statements by me. I don’t know anyone named Austin Cassidy. I have not made any of these comments to any media, and besides, the alleged comments are factually incorrect. Who wrote this article? The LPL stands behind Barr/Root. Regardless, we are prohibited from endorsing anyone other than a Libertarian in a partisan race by virtue of our national by-laws and so there will be no endorsement of the Paul/Goldwater ticket.
You do not have all of your facts straight concerning why they certification was not complete. Also, the issue is not settled, as there are still mechanisms available to us in the law to qualify our electors for Barr/Root. We should know something definitive by Sept 15th.
And Mr. Hill, I don’t know who your contact is in the LPL, but as Chairman I can say publicly, that our State Central Committee has NOT addressed this issue and so your statement of ‘definitive’ is false. Please issue a retraction.
It’ll be a heck of a lot better than Badnarik or even Harry Browne…
No.
Austin,
At some point I thought Barr would score 203 million also. Now im thinking more like 1 million.
The Barr campaign is sputtering badly. I’m honestly starting to wonder if he’ll make a million votes or not. Six weeks ago, I was thinking 2-3 million was well within reach.
It’ll be a heck of a lot better than Badnarik or even Harry Browne… but it could have gone so much better.
Im hearing, definitively, that the LP will endorse the Ron Paul/Barry Goldwater ticket if they cant get on. Pretty good news, gives us a big activist base.
All the LP had to do was file some papers and they couldn’t get that done before Gustav hit? It’s amazing was a slipshod ballot access the Barr/LP team is running this year, especially when compared with Nader, who apparently had the foresight to file his papers early in LA.
While this is rather poopy for Barr if the LP can cross endorse Paul that would be fine, too. What an irony if Ron Paul who said he would not leave the GOP winds up as the CP nominee in MT and the LP nominee in LA!
F no.
Is there any chance the Paul/Goldwater ticket could be changed to a Barr/Root ticket?