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@Jake
It should be noted that the Rhinoceros Party (30) had almost twice as many candidates as the Canadian Libertarian Party (17), and averaged fewer votes per candidate.
Additionally, Trinidad and Tobago also elected a new Parliament on April 28. The Elections and Boundaries Commission issued a press release yesterday saying, in part, “Based on the preliminary count, the United National Congress (UNC) has emerged as the leading party in
the parliamentary elections, securing 26 of the 41 constituencies. The People’s National Movement
secured 13, and the Tobago People’s Party secured 2.”
Thank you for the Canadian results, everyone. I appreciate you sharing the highlights here. I’d like for IPR to eventually reach a point where we can explore international results in greater detail, as we currently do with organizations and elections in the United States. However, we need more contributors first, especially those familiar with the international third party scene.
————————
Municipal election season is underway in Massachusetts, so I’m holding off on exploring this more deeply until other towns have the chance to vote next month. That said, a Libertarian was elected to Bridgewater’s Town Council on Saturday. The national party confirmed this week that Sean Kennedy won in a two-way race. I’m not yet sure which of the several Libertarian organizations in Massachusetts that Kennedy identifies with.
Meanwhile in the WFP
https://x.com/PeterMoskos/status/1917400104626999378
> Rhinocéros Party 7,457
> Libertarian Party 6,001
This should be alarming enough: a “party” purely based on political satire (not an affront on our favorite political satirist in Vermin Love Supreme, Esq.) received more votes than the Canadian Libertarian Party.
In the 2024 UK Parliament elections, not a single member of the Libertarian Party in the UK ran for election. However, four candidates from the Scottish Libertarian Party were slated.
Meanwhile, 62 candidates in the Australian Libertarian Party (fka the Liberal Democratic Party, renamed in 2024) are slated to run in Saturday’s federal elections in Australia. Some of these races include hybrid tickets, including with the HEART Party in the Australian Capital Territory and with the People First Party and HEART as part of the Australia First Alliance in New South Wales. The breakdown: 46 for the Australian House of Representatives, 16 for the Australian Senate.
As of 5:53p (Pacific) the nationwide minor party results for Canada are:
Christian Heritage Party 10,165
Rhinocéros Party 7,457
United Party of Canada 6,241
Libertarian Party 6,001
Marxist-Leninist 5,648
Communist 5,454
Centrist 4,147
CFP 3,198
Animal Protection Party 1,299
Marijuana Party 133
[Editor: Out of a total of 19,597,674 votes.]
The Canadian federal elections were yesterday.
The Libertarian Party of Canada ran 16 candidates in the federal elections, including the following:
British Columbia
Coquitlam—Port Coquitlam – Lewis Dahlby
Langley Township—Fraser Heights – Alex Joehl
Alberta
Airdrie—Cochrane – David Sabine
Saskatchewan
Yorkton—Melville – Alec Guggenmos
Ontario
Burlington – Ocean Marshall
Niagara Falls—Niagara-on-the-Lake – Daniel Shakhmundes
Orléans – Arlo Arrowsmith
Ottawa—Vanier—Gloucester – Coreen Corcoran
Sarnia—Lambton—Bkejwanong – Jacques Boudreau
Stormont—Dundas—Glengarry – Karl MacKinnon
Sudbury East—Manitoulin—Nickel Belt – Justin Leroux
New Brunswick
Beauséjour – Donna Allen
Saint John—Kennebecasis – Austin Venedam
Saint John—St. Croix – Keith Tays
Nova Scotia
Dartmouth—Cole Harbour – Joseph Shea
Sydney—Glace Bay – Michael Pittman
As of 9 a.m. CDT, 312 of 343 races in the Canadian House of Commons in Parliament have been called, with the Liberal Party winning 154 races (+2 since dissolution), the Conservative Party (+11) winning 131, Bloc Québécois (-12) winning 21, New Democrat (-20) winning 4, and Greens (-1) winning 1. Uncertain to tell how many of the 228,312 votes cast for other candidates extend to the Libertarian candidates.
I just tried to see OurCampaigns but received the message that the website was down.
The OurCampaigns website appears to be back up
I know some of our readers also visit OurCampaigns (I see some of you over there). I’m a former contributor and still like to check in on the site from time to time, though I’ve been locked out of my account for a hot minute. It is a fantastic resource for digging into a candidate’s electoral history for those unfamiliar with it, especially third party or independent candidates who have a multi-partisan history.
The site appears to be down following a DDoS attack (or maybe more?). I haven’t interacted with Randy or the current moderation team in over a decade, but I hope everything gets resolved smoothly and soon.
Congratulations, Jake Leonard, on your election success!
Two interesting pieces of legislation regarding elections in Illinois:
SB1954: If passed, it would provide a mechanism for voters to petition to recall county-level elected officials. (I do wish it extended to all partisan races across the board. God forbid that we need to recall pretty much every single member of the Illinois General Assembly and all state constitutional officers.) Currently sitting in House Ethics & Elections Committee.
Link: https://ilga.gov/legislation/BillStatus.asp?DocTypeID=SB&DocNum=1954&GAID=18&SessionID=114&LegID=161342
Now this is the one I find problematic, because it seems they want to force Top Two down our throats in Illinois:
SB2158: If passed, per the synopsis, provides that the two candidates in any primary election who receive the most votes in the primary election, regardless of the party affiliation of the candidates, shall be the only two candidates certified to participate in the general election. Sitting in the Senate Elections Committee. Mentions nothing about allowing Libertarians or Greens to be primary eligible should the legislation become law, nor does it mention anything regarding petitioning for the general election.
Link: https://ilga.gov/legislation/BillStatus.asp?DocTypeID=SB&DocNum=2158&GAID=18&SessionID=114&LegID=161844
UPDATE ON CERTIFIED ILLINOIS RESULTS:
Two of the three remaining counties were able to certify their results on time today. One county, Wabash County, was unable to confirm with me at 3 p.m. Central as to whether the election results had been certified. Media contacts in that area have also been able to receive final confirmation of the election results.
Counties now reporting official results:
COOK COUNTY
Library Trustee 6-year, Poplar Creek Library District
VOTE FOR 2 – CERTIFIED APRIL 22
100% reporting
Marianne Bailey: 2,996 (55.82%) +1,135
Patrick Liapes: 2,371 (44.18%) +789
Source: https://results425.cookcountyclerkil.gov/Home/Detail?contestId=751
MCHENRY COUNTY
Trustee 4-year, Greenwood Township
VOTE FOR 4 – CERTIFIED APRIL 22
100% reporting
Kelly Liebmann: 806 (25.19%) +104
Patricia Beard: 824 (25.75%) +105
Timothy Stefaniak: 759 (23.72%) +93
Craig Pfannkuche: 811 (25.34%) +112
Source: https://results.enr.clarityelections.com/IL/McHenry/123537/web.345435/#/detail/0423
Council Member, City of Crystal Lake
VOTE FOR 3 – CERTIFIED APRIL 22
100% reporting
Natasha Teetsov: 2,604 (35.32%)
Ian Philpot: 2,449 (33.22%)
Cameron D. Hubbard: 2,202 (29.87%)
Jake Justen (write-in): 117 (1.59%)
Source 1: https://results.enr.clarityelections.com/IL/McHenry/123537/web.345435/#/detail/0310
Source 2: https://www.mchenrycountyil.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/119373
Counties still reporting unofficial results:
WABASH COUNTY
Trustee 4-year, Village of Bellmont
VOTE FOR 3 – NOT YET CERTIFIED
100% reporting
Jerry Rigg: 41
Peggy Walling: 40
Barbara Bruce: 36
Bill Eblin: 20
Jonathan King: 15
Richard Davis: 7
Donald Lowery: 4
**Wabash County did not provide percentage breakdowns upon our requests, even after King shared the results with me.**
Source: Jonathan King
Last week the Election Law Caucus at Seattle University School of Law hosted a discussion on the SAVE Act and President Trump’s recent Executive Order on federal elections.
The discussion was originally going to be streamed on Zoom and the video recorded. However there was a system-wide Zoom outage as the meeting began. The audio recording is available at: https://soundcloud.com/election-law-caucus/save-act
Tomorrow (Tuesday, April 22) is the final day for county clerks to certify the election results of the April 1 consolidated election in Illinois.
Of the six counties where party members ran for office, only three counties have certified their results as of 8:30 p.m. CDT on Monday, April 21. This leaves Cook, McHenry, and Wabash counties to certify the election results by the end of business tomorrow.
Counties with certified election canvass reports:
GRUNDY COUNTY
Board of Education 4-year, Nettle Creek CCSD 24C
VOTE FOR 3 – CERTIFIED APRIL 16
100% reporting
Brett Ryan: 128 (33.16%) +1
Brock Nelson: 139 (36.01%)
Jeremiah Bowers: 119 (30.83%)
Source: https://results.gbsvote.com/locations/county_results.asp?id=7026
MACOUPIN COUNTY
Village President 4-year, Village of Wilsonville
VOTE FOR 1 – CERTIFIED APRIL 15
100% reporting
Bob Haney: 66 (50.40%) +2
Roland Rife: 33 (26.40%)
Brian Voyles: 29 (21.95%) +2
Source: https://results.enr.clarityelections.com/IL/Macoupin/123244/web.345435/#/detail/1270
MONTGOMERY COUNTY
Library Trustee 6-year, Nokomis Township Public Library District
VOTE FOR 3 – CERTIFIED APRIL 15
100% reporting
Marjorie Eisenbarth: 212 (68.17%)
Jake Leonard: 99 (31.83%) UNCHANGED
Source: https://montgomerycountyil.gov/wp-content/uploads/25ConsolidatedSummaryOfficial.pdf
Counties still reporting unofficial results:
COOK COUNTY
Library Trustee 6-year, Poplar Creek Library District
VOTE FOR 2 – NOT YET CERTIFIED
100% reporting
Marianne Bailey: 1,861 (54.05%)
Patrick Liapes: 1,582 (45.95%)
Source: https://electionnight.cookcountyclerkil.gov/StaticSummarydistrictIdLIBRD.html
MCHENRY COUNTY
Trustee 4-year, Greenwood Township
VOTE FOR 4 – NOT YET CERTIFIED
100% reporting
Kelly Liebmann: 702 (25.20%)
Patricia Beard: 719 (25.81%)
Timothy Stefaniak: 666 (23.91%)
Craig Pfannkuche: 699 (25.09%)
Source: https://results.enr.clarityelections.com/IL/McHenry/123537/web.345435/#/detail/0423
I discovered after the fact that an LP Illinois member filed as a write-in candidate for a city council race in Crystal Lake. Those unofficial results are below:
Council Member, City of Crystal Lake
VOTE FOR 3 – NOT YET CERTIFIED
100% reporting
Natasha Teetsov: 2,604 (35.89%)
Ian Philpot: 2,449 (33.76%)
Cameron D. Hubbard: 2,202 (30.35%)
Jake Justen: 117 (unspecified percentage)
Source 1: https://results.enr.clarityelections.com/IL/McHenry/123537/web.345435/#/detail/0310
Source 2: https://www.mchenrycountyil.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/119307/638803318456430000
WABASH COUNTY
Trustee 4-year, Village of Bellmont
VOTE FOR 3 – NOT YET CERTIFIED
100% reporting
Jerry Rigg: 41
Peggy Walling: 40
Barbara Bruce: 36
Bill Eblin: 20
Jonathan King: 15
Richard Davis: 7
Donald Lowery: 4
**Wabash County did not provide percentage breakdowns upon our requests, even after King shared the results with me.**
Source: Jonathan King
Darryl: Thank you for the tip! The Massachusetts party affiliated with the Libertarian National Committee did something similar this past December. I will definitely follow up on this.
———
The Libertarian National Committee received a request for additional information from the Federal Election Commission this weekend, seeking clarification on financial activity related to its amended pre-general election report. This includes coordinated expenses made by party committees. The letter is viewable here.
Advisory Opinion Request 2025-07, Libertarian Party of Maryland, Libertarian Party of Maine, Libertarian Party of Idaho and Libertarian Party of Vermont
FEC’s “Docket”
https://www.fec.gov/data/legal/advisory-opinions/2025-07/
(Comments due by April 18, 2025)
You’re welcome. That reminds me I forgot to follow up. My guess was correct: making the comment fixed the date. So, the date at the top reflects the most recent post or comment.
X: Thank you for pointing that out. I assume it’s due to the site’s theme, so that’s good to know on my end.
It says it’s April 4 at the top of the site. If I’m not mistaken, that’s because no one made a comment or post since then, so making this comment will fix the date.
Here’s the most recent Milnes sighting I know of
https://iprx.wordpress.com/2023/06/15/robert-milnes-needs-help/
Never mind Frankel, where’s Robert Milnes?
“Escape from New York” doesn’t seem too far fetched these days.
The Unity Party of America will be having back to back Colorado and National conventions on April 19th. If you are in Colorado show up at 10:00am for the national convention on google meet (the link is on our website https://unitypartyamerica.us/ this is the only official party website) and if you are anywhere else show up at 11:00am for our national convention at 11:00am (you can also find the link to attend that on https://unitypartyamerica.us/ )
Corruption and graft built New York City. It was, after all, the home of Tammany Hall. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Would running for mayor of NYC in the year of our Lord 2025 be akin to running for king rat of a gigantic dumpster which at that very moment happens to be on fire?
Are you running for mayor of NYC? I heard you’re a convicted felon, but Adams and Cuomo are pretty obviously felons, even if they have not been convicted yet, so why not? Is it because you would have to move there again to do that?
Jordan and NF, and if anyone else is interested,
I’ve had my ups and downs.
I’m available to write / collaborate on satirical articles on a collaborative site. If the board here isn’t interested but others are, I might contribute to a separate collaboration of that nature- maybe an Onion/Babylon bee type of site for the political fringes?
If the board here decides to revive April 1 articles and isn’t opposed to me contributing some, I might do that, in addition or instead.
If anyone wants to stay in touch outside of that, text me at 205-534-1622 and please identify yourself as I would know you (real name or screen name). I’ve been through a few phones lately and saved phone numbers don’t always transfer reliably.
Voice calls and emails are not good ways of reaching me these days, and I’ve been completely off f***book (including messenger) for over 4 years. I don’t use Twitter/X or other such sites and I’m not going to do the back and forth here like I used to. It sucks me in, in unhealthy ways.
I’ll check back here April 1 next year to see how it’s going here. Maybe May 20 to see if anyone remembers IPR’s birthday, if I remember to myself.
Other than that, folks are welcome to text me if they feel like it. You can email, but I often go months without checking it now. The last time I did was in January. I’m back to my gmail address. If anyone has my protonmail, forget it, I forgot the password. But texting is a lot better.
Sorry to waste the time of those who don’t know who I am or don’t want to stay in touch with that long reply.
If I were writing a story about that, I’d also mention that the former governor of NY State who signed the most draconian ballot access of any state for minor parties at the presidential and statewide level into law* currently looks like the most likely candidate to win the Democrat primary and that no plausible Republican has stepped forward (I’d have to look up whether or how much time is left to qualify).
*it’s a complex subject, so there may be a more precisely accurate way to state that
It may or may not be relevant that the current mayor had federal corruption charges brought against him under the previous (dummy rat) administration, that the current (GOP) administration dropped those but wanted to reserve the option to file them again, and that a federal judge just ruled against them having that option while dismissing those charges.
It may or may not also be relevant that the former governor who is now running for mayor resigned amidst numerous allegations of sexual improprieties from various women, other unrelated corruption allegations, dictatorial handling of covid 19, turning nursing homes into coronavirus death camps, and profiting from his covid “leadership” through a crooked book deal.
The sitting mayor of NYC is running for reelection as an independent in a partisan race. He was previously elected as a Democrat.
Thanks for finding that, Nicholas, but per 10 ILCS 5/10-7, she cannot legally hold both positions.
New Windsor Library Trustee
Number of Precincts: 2
Precincts Reporting: 2 100 percent
Vote for 2
Hannah Lindstorm 149 (56.87%)
Veronica Sparksman 113 (43.13%)
Happy to see Paulie post again! I hope you post more. I have always enjoyed your point of view.
https://ballot-access.org/2025/04/02/four-libertarian-party-candidates-win-competitive-elections-for-public-offices-in-oklahoma/
Election night results involving members of the Libertarian and Reform Parties in Illinois:
**COOK COUNTY**
***Library Trustee 6-year, Poplar Creek Library District***
VOTE FOR 2
100% reporting
Marianne Bailey: 1,861 (54.05%)
**Patrick Liapes: 1,582 (45.95%)**
Source: https://electionnight.cookcountyclerkil.gov/StaticSummarydistrictIdLIBRD.html
**GRUNDY COUNTY**
***Board of Education 4-year, Nettle Creek CCSD 24C***
VOTE FOR 3
100% reporting
**Brett Ryan: 127 (32.99%)**
Brock Nelson: 139 (36.1%)
Jeremiah Bowers: 119 (30.91%)
Source: https://results.gbsvote.com/locations/county_results.asp?id=7026
**MACOUPIN COUNTY**
***Village President 4-year, Village of Wilsonville***
VOTE FOR 1
100% reporting
Bob Haney: 63 (51.22%)
Roland Rife: 33 (26.83%)
**Brian Voyles: 27 (21.95%)**
Source: https://results.enr.clarityelections.com/IL/Macoupin/123244/web.345435/#/detail/1270
**MCHENRY COUNTY**
***Trustee 4-year, Greenwood Township***
VOTE FOR 4
100% reporting
**Kelly Liebmann: 702 (25.20%)**
Patricia Beard: 719 (25.81%)
Timothy Stefaniak: 666 (23.91%)
Craig Pfannkuche: 699 (25.09%)
Source: https://results.enr.clarityelections.com/IL/McHenry/123537/web.345435/#/detail/0423
**MONTGOMERY COUNTY**
***Library Trustee 6-year, Nokomis Township Public Library District***
VOTE FOR 3
100% reporting
Marjorie Eisenbarth: 212 (68.17%)
**Jake Leonard: 99 (31.83%)**
Source: https://montgomerycountyil.gov/wp-content/uploads/25consolidatedsummary.pdf
**ROCK ISLAND COUNTY**
NOTE: Upon digging across election results, Veronica Sparksman only comes up once, specifically in the Sherrard School District race. She does not appear on the ballot line for the library district race. I would imagine that at some point after petition filing in December, Rock Island County election authorities told Sparksman to choose one race to focus on. Both positions are considered incompatible per 10 ILCS 5/10-7, meaning she could not hold both positions simultaneously. The national Reform Party might have been gone off some partially bad information.
***Board of Education, Sherrard Schools #200***
VOTE FOR 4
John Cabor: 255 (13.65%)
Cassandra Cleaveland: 272 (14.56%)
Kimberly DeBlock: 331 (17.72%)
Robert (Dan) Helm: 324 (17.34%)
Viminda Shafer: 99 (5.30%)
Aaron (A.A. Ron) Johnson: 244 (13.06%)
Chad Kinsey: 173 (9.26%)
Veronica Sparksman: 170 (9.10%)
**WABASH COUNTY**
***Trustee 4-year, Village of Bellmont***
VOTE FOR 3
100% reporting
Jerry Rigg: 41
Peggy Walling: 40
Barbara Bruce: 36
Bill Eblin: 20
**Jonathan King: 15**
Richard Davis: 7
Donald Lowery: 4
**Wabash County did not provide percentage breakdowns upon our requests even after King shared the results with me.**
Source: Jonathan King
Also not April fools
https://www.fox32chicago.com/news/illinois-election-results-live-updates
Not April Fool’s: includes votes for constitution party candidates in both special congressional elections and a libertarian in one of them
https://floridaelectionwatch.gov/FederalOffices/USRepresentative
Paul: It’s good to hear from you. I hope you’ve been well.
I didn’t realize the Open Monthly Threads came into existence a few years after the site was created, so I’ll make that change for the future. I also remember the April Fools’ Day posts (at least some of them), but that’s more of a board decision at this point and not mine alone. Maybe next year!
Jake: Thank you for tying in some previous articles. Please feel free to keep us posted on any notable results you come across tonight, especially in Illinois.
Election day in Wisconsin, Florida, and Illinois today.
In Wisconsin, a two-way race between the lame-o duopoly candidates for a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court. Not really all that interesting.
In Florida, two Congressional seats are at stake, previously held by Matt Gaetz and Michael Waltz. There is a three-way race for Gaetz’ 1st Congressional District with Stephen Broden as a No Party Affiliation (NPA) candidate. In Waltz’s 6th Congressional District, there is a four-way race including Randall Terry as a NPA candidate. (Broden and Terry were the 2024 Constitution Party nominees for VP and POTUS, respectively as stated [here](https://independentpoliticalreport.com/2024/12/former-constitution-party-nominees-randall-terry-and-stephen-broden-to-run-in-upcoming-florida-special-elections-as-independents/).) [Also running](https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/live-results-florida-special-elections-to-replace-gaetz-and-waltz) in that race is Libertarian Andrew Parrott.
In Illinois, most local races are on the line in today’s Consolidated Election. Most positions are independent in nature, except for partisan township races and partisan elections in home-rule communities and cities about 100,000. The [Libertarian](https://independentpoliticalreport.com/2025/02/libertarian-party-of-illinois-announces-2025-local-candidates/) and [Reform](https://independentpoliticalreport.com/2025/03/reform-party-endorses-illinois-candidate-for-school-and-library-boards/) parties announced candidates that were running in this election.
“Since its founding, Independent Political Report has hosted a Monthly Open Thread”
Not quite. We started the open threads around 2011 or 12 iirc.
Another tradition we used to have was April Fools day posts. Want to revive it?