Libertarian Primary Irregularities: LP Asking Board of Elections To Respond
The Libertarian Party of North Carolina has asked the State Board
of Elections to look into several irregularities in the conduct of the
recent gubernatorial primary, including an incident where a
Libertarian candidate for governor was initially denied a ballot.
"We have clear evidence that a large number of precinct workers
failed to offer the choice of a Libertarian primary ballot alongside
Republican or Democratic ballots," said Sean Haugh, LPNC executive
director.
"While this most likely did not affect the outcome of the primary,
it most certainly did affect the number of people who would’ve voted
in our primary." In Jackson County, Jonathon Littlejohn, a candidate
in the Libertarian gubernatorial race, was refused a ballot.
"The people taking names would not let us vote Libertarian," he
said. "We were the first to protest and would not leave until we were
allowed to vote." Fortunately, he said there was someone there who
was aware of the Libertarian primary and allowed them to vote.
The LPNC sent the board an 18 page letter contained 17 instances of
irregularities in the polling. The letter cites several telephone and
e-mail reports sent to the party of cases where poll workers
apparently did not know there was a Libertarian primary or failed to
notify unaffiliated voters that they could vote in it.
According to their report, the Libertarians said they found only
one major irregularity, in Johnston County. After he received a call
from a voter there, Haugh called the county BOE director.
"During the call, I learned that election officials hadn’t informed
poll workers that unaffiliated voters could vote in the Libertarian
primary," said Haugh. While the director immediately corrected the
problem, it was already late morning.
"From our viewpoint, therefore, we do not believe there was a
properly conducted Libertarian primary in Johnston County," said
Haugh.
At one polling place, a registered Libertarian was told he could
vote in the Democrat or Republic primary, contrary to the law. At
another, a poll worker told an unaffiliated voter who requested a
Libertarian ballot, "Why don’t you just vote Democrat or Republican
like everybody else."
"We understand that, given the historic nature of this, the first
primary ever held in North Carolina by a party other than the
Republicans or Democrats, it may well have been a learning experience
for many of those responsible for running our elections," Haugh said.
"We have confidence in the staff of the State Board of Elections to
investigate and correct these problems, to assure that future
Libertarian primaries are as free of irregularities as possible."
Haugh emphasized that the LPNC is not requesting a formal
investigation but simply asking for the state board to review their
report and respond to their conclusions.
"Since we are unaware of any irregularities which occurred that
were not reported to us, it’s impossible for us to determine our
first-ever primary was as successful as it could have been," said
Haugh.
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