Bruce Majors
Three Libertarians today filed petitions with the D.C. Board of Elections with enough signatures to assure them places on the April 2014 primary ballot. Winners in the primary are automatically assured placement on the November 2014 general election ballot.
The three candidates who filed signatures today are:
*Bruce Majors for mayor. Majors, a resident of Ward 2, has lived in Washington, D.C., since 1980. A Realtor and graduate student in economics at George Mason University, Majors’s 2012 campaign for Congress earned 16,500 votes and permanent ballot status for the Libertarian Party in D.C., making ballot access dramatically easier than in the past.
*Frederick Steiner for city council at large. Steiner is a resident of Ward 4. An IT professional, he is married and the father of a one-year-old. He earned an MBA from George Mason University in 2011.
*Sara Jane Panfil for delegate to Congress. Panfil is a Ward 3 resident and paralegal. She is a 2010 graduate of Columbia University.
In addition, Ryan Sabot, a Tenleytown resident and undergraduate at American University, has announced an intention to file for Ward 3 city council representative. A Libertarian candidate for Ward 6 (Capitol Hill) is also likely.
The D.C. Libertarian Party seeks to make political process competitive in the district, which is virtually a one-party jurisdiction with incumbents serving for life.
Thanks Bruce, that was what I was thinking.
That’s the only thing permanent ballot access means in DC. All parties have to get at least 7500 votes for at least one candidate every two years or they lose “permanent” status and have to petition for thousands of signatures again. The GOP one year a few cycles ago forgot to run someone and almost lost their permanent status.
I’ll see if I can find out.
Fair enough. I’m taking the LP at its word that ballot status is, in fact, permanent, but if anybody finds conclusive evidence to the contrary I’ll be happy to add a correction to the end of the article.
I don’t think DC laws allow that option.
Isn’t having the DC government pay for an internal party primary election a kind of welfare? Can’t the LP just set up a couple ballot boxes ath the Watergate?
Ballot retention was the big news. Before that we had to petition each time.
This is the first I’ve seen it suggested that the LP didn’t have permanent ballot status in DC. I thought that was the big news from last year?
EW, thanks, but that does not answer the question of whether ballot access is permanent, through 2014 or through 2016.
Great news. I think I read somewhere that since there are only 200 registered Libertarians in DC (or in a certain district) they only had to collect 2 signatures (1%) to get on the ballot.
Nice work to Bruce back in 2012 for his Congressional Campaign
http://www.dcboee.org/voter_info/gen_info/voting_primary_general_election.asp#Primary
Primary Elections
A primary election is the “first step” in the election process. In a primary, the voters registered with each of the major political parties select their party’s representative, or nominee, to the general election.
Primaries are held only for partisan offices (such as Delegate to the House, Mayor, Councilmember, and Senator and Representative). Only the Democratic, Republican, DC Statehood Green, and Libertarian parties have qualified to hold primaries in the District of Columbia.
Because primaries are party elections, only voters registered with one of these parties may vote in their party’s election.
No, I believe it is in fact permanent. He met the vote test for permanent ballot status.
“Majors’s 2012 campaign for Congress earned 16,500 votes and permanent ballot status for the Libertarian Party in D.C., making ballot access dramatically easier than in the past.”
Permanent ballot access? I thought that this only gave them ballot access for the next election.
You go, Bruce!