The Libertarian Party of New York is calling on voters to write in “None of the Above” for governor this year, launching a statewide protest campaign against New York’s ballot access laws after its own gubernatorial nominee failed to qualify for the printed ballot.
In a statement this week announcing its “VOTE NOTA” campaign, the party said it will not support a “named candidate” for governor this cycle and rallied voters to instead write in None of the Above. Christopher Skelly, communications director for the Libertarian Party of New York, said the effort is intended as a protest against what the party considers a system intended to protect members of the Democratic and Republican parties.
“When the rules make it nearly impossible for principled alternatives to appear on the ballot, the honest response is to withhold consent,” Skelly said. “Writing in None of the Above is a clear, countable statement that none of the major-party options deserve our support.”
New York will have only two gubernatorial candidates appearing on the ballot, with Democratic incumbent Kathy Hochul facing Republican Bruce Blakeman. Hochul will also appear on the Working Families Party line, while Blakeman will additionally appear on the Conservative and Vote Affordable lines.
New York Libertarians initially planned to field Larry Sharpe, nominating Sharpe for governor at the party’s October 2025 convention. Sharpe also announced that he had received the nomination of the We the People Party, the organization once associated with Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s 2024 independent presidential campaign.
Sharpe ultimately sought ballot access through an independent nominating petition under the Coalition Party name, with Shannon Joy Bones as his lieutenant governor candidate. The State Board of Elections ruled the petition invalid in June, finding that it contained no more than 1,615 possible signatures against the 45,000 required for a statewide independent candidate.
The party has pinned the reasons behind its current strategy on changes to state law enacted in 2020. Sharpe received 95,033 votes as the Libertarian gubernatorial candidate in 2018, clearing the former 50,000-vote threshold and giving the party recognized status for the first time. New York then raised the qualification requirement two years later to the greater of 130,000 votes or 2 percent in both gubernatorial and presidential elections. It also increased the statewide independent petition requirement from 15,000 signatures to 45,000.
Since that change, the Working Families and Conservative parties, both of which frequently cross-nominate Democratic or Republican candidates, have remained the only recognized parties in the state outside the two major parties.
On a website created for the campaign, the Libertarian Party of New York said its goal is not to elect a governor or regain a ballot line this year, but instead to produce a visible protest vote in support of lower ballot access requirements. However, it is not obvious how the state will treat the effort, given how it views write-ins elsewhere.
New York defines a write-in vote as one cast for a person whose name is not already printed on the ballot, potentially complicating the party’s objectives if it hopes to have a tallied total. The State Board of Elections also previously declined to recognize an independent nominating petition earlier this summer trying to name “None of the Above,” specifically noting that the document listed no named candidates and provided no candidate residential addresses.
In the meantime, the Libertarian Party of New York said it will continue supporting candidates further down the ballot through what it calls “liberty from below,” focusing on local organizing efforts where it considers them viable.
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