The Libertarian Party of Georgia has ended its effort to regain statewide ballot access this year after falling far short of the required petition total and will instead focus on future election cycles and working with other organizations on changing Georgia’s ballot access laws.
WABE initially reported on July 10 that Vice Chair Brian Allen, currently serving as acting chair, and Assistant Treasurer Mark Mosley submitted “only a few hundred petition signatures of the more than 70,000 needed” to the Georgia Secretary of State’s Office. Even though the total fell far short of the requirement, Allen said the party followed through because it had promised those who signed that their petitions would be filed.
The two submitted what the party had collected four days before Georgia’s July 14 deadline for independent and political body candidates to file nomination petitions. The petition would have requalified the Libertarian Party of Georgia, which the state currently recognizes as a political body, to nominate its statewide candidates by convention. Under Georgia law, such bodies are able to qualify either through a petition signed by voters equal to 1 percent of those eligible to vote in the preceding general election or by meeting the same threshold with a statewide candidate in that election.
The party lost its statewide qualified status following the 2024 election cycle, when the presidential race was the only statewide office on the ballot and Libertarian nominee Chase Oliver failed to receive at least 1 percent of the vote. That cycle would have also included elections for Public Service Commission, which similarly would have counted for the same purpose; however, those races had been delayed due to litigation alleging that Georgia’s statewide method of electing commissioners diluted the voting power of Black residents under the Voting Rights Act.
“There is no valid reason why the state should require over 70,000 signatures for a candidate to be on the ballot when research has shown that it only takes a 5,000 signature requirement to prevent ballot crowding,” Allen said in a statement released by the party following the submission. “It is clear that the current law exists simply to advantage Democrats and Republicans, who have never had to petition to get onto the ballot as they were grandfathered in when the law was first written.”
Party delegates originally nominated a slate of candidates at their January convention, including several for statewide office. They included Oliver for governor—though he suspended his bid before the party ended its petition drive, Allen Buckley for U.S. Senate, Colin McKinney for insurance commissioner, and Tom Blooming for the Public Service Commission’s 5th District. Also among statewide nominees was Ted Metz for secretary of state, however, he instead later entered the the Republican primary held in May where he earned 5.6 percent.
Following the setback, Allen told WABE that Georgia Libertarians will focus on pursuing legislative changes to the state’s ballot access laws and working with other political parties on those efforts. The party does not plan to endorse any Republican or Democratic candidates this year, although Allen said it may still comment on positions taken by candidates from either party.
The party will also turn its attention to the 2027 municipal elections and possible state House and presidential campaigns in 2028. A law enacted in 2024 allows a political party or body that has obtained presidential ballot access in at least 20 states or territories to qualify its presidential electors in Georgia, giving the national Libertarian ticket an alternative route to the state ballot during the next presidential cycle.
The Georgia party’s candidates are also still free to mount write-in campaigns this cycle if any choose to do so. The deadline to file and publish a notice of intent is September 8, with proof of publication due September 14.
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