On December 14, the Maine Secretary of State converted all 5,500 registered Libertarians to registered independents. The Maine Secretary of State had been told that the party intends to file a lawsuit soon, arguing that it is unconstitutional for states to automatically change voter registration just because the party goes off the ballot. Only a handful of states have that policy. In five states, courts have ruled that voters have a right to be registered into unqualified parties: Colorado, Iowa, New Jersey, New York, and Oklahoma.
If the Maine Libertarians could keep their registrations, then the party would be back on the ballot. It lost its qualified status recently because it didn’t have at least 10,000 registrants who actually cast a ballot in November 2018. But the law says a new party can become qualified if it has 5,000 registrants. So if the party still had its registrants, it could re-qualify as a “new” party.
I have the LPME officers contact info if anyone reading wants to follow up for further articles, comment and I’ll send you the original release with the contact info included.
The registrations of LP voters matter because that’s one way to get ballot access there. Whereas the Ds and Rs are not in any danger of falling off the ballot.
On a lighthearted note: If anything, you can appreciate the oxymoron in it all. It would be like involuntary voluntarism enforced by a branch of the government brought by a suit by min-archist. Or something like that.
I don’t understand what you mean.
I’m an Independent. Is there anyway to change the Secretary of State in Maine’s registration to Libertarian? If it’s overturned somehow, part of the penalties should be forced registration for two cycles into the Libertarian Party. I know the Libertarians would be against that because of NAP, but it would be part of a ruling and supposed to be so no one tries it again, ect. If they can change our registration, why can we theirs? Not that being a libertarian is some form of punishment, I’m just saying 😉