Application to Recognize Three New Parties in North Carolina

This email was sent to the North Carolina State Board of Elections on the morning of July 9th, 2024.

 

To the Members of the North Carolina State Board of Elections,

I, Ryan Brown, Chair of the Libertarian Party of North Carolina (LPNC), am writing on behalf of the LPNC, as well as other non-major parties and unaffiliated voters, to implore you to take advantage of the opportunity you have today to reverse an egregiously anti-representative decision you made on June 26 when you did not accept the requests by the Justice for All Party, the We the People Party, and the Constitution Party to be recognized as official parties in our great state of North Carolina.

Especially in recent political discourse, we hear the term “democracy” thrown around constantly. We are told that one major party or the other represents a threat to our democracy, or that we should fight for this election because “democracy is on the line.” The truth is, our democracy is only as stable to the degree of trust that our population has in the elected officials who would govern them and the degree to which they are representative of the people.

In a state where the plurality of voters has abandoned the two major parties and are registered unaffiliated, the Board of Elections, and all the decisions around our elections, remains the sole purview of selected – not elected – officials assigned to the role and aligned with one of the two major parties. This alone is counter to the concept of fair representation and structurally in opposition to the idea of a government for the people and by the people.

While we believe the bar is clearly far too high for independent candidates to gain ballot access, and we further believe the bar is too high for new parties to gain recognized status, we acknowledge that North Carolina is reasonable relative to other states in terms of signature gathering requirements for the establishment of an official new party. However, when the State Board of Elections invents or interprets rules with no basis in established law, no precedent, and carrying the perception that the new interpretation of the rules might benefit one party over another by excluding new parties which have met all statutory and regulatory requirements, important questions as to the Board’s commitment to our representative democracy are raised.

Further, when outside special interests, law firms, and other entities whose sole motivation is seemingly to somehow game the system to increase the chances of victory for the party with which they align are publicly encouraging the adoption of these new rule interpretations, these questions of intention by the Board become even more pressing. When those law firms were the driving force behind similar legal challenges in the past that were utterly defeated in court, then all of North Carolina must ask if this Board exists to represent the people of our great state or the interests of a party and its backers.

Fortunately, there is an immediate and simple remedy for this. We note the questions that come up due to the circumstance of the prior decision on June 26, but we are not accusing you of acting in bad faith. We want to believe you are faithful stewards of the people’s trust, and that you were doing your due diligence. With your review behind you, you now have the chance to assuage any and all doubts, remove potential perceptions of partisan impropriety, and rectify the entire situation.

Below you will find not only my virtual signature, but the virtual signatures of a majority of the members of the LPNC EC and leadership team, as well as virtual signatures from leadership of the Veteran’s Party, the Forward Party, the We the People Party, the Justice for All Party, and the Green Party. We all certainly do not agree on all policy issues, and we look forward to the opportunity to resolve those differences in a truly representative government, the way the Founders of our country intended. We stand together unequivocally, though, in asking that you approve the applications before you today.

I look forward to you doing the right thing for our state, our country, and the Republic and ideals that bind us as Americans.

Thank you,

Ryan Brown
State Chair
Libertarian Party of North Carolina

Patrick Newton
State Sitting Chair
North Carolina Forward Party

MJ Hall
State Co-Chair
North Carolina Forward Party

James Bledsoe
State Chair
Veterans Party of North Carolina

Ceara Foley
State Chair
We the People Party of North Carolina

Italo Medelius
State Chair
Justice for All Party of North Carolina

Mike Ross
Gubernatorial Candidate
Libertarian Party of North Carolina

Wayne Turner
Gubernatorial Candidate
Green Party of North Carolina

Shannon Bray
Lieutenant Governor Candidate
Libertarian Party of North Carolina

Sean Haugh
State Vice Chair
Libertarian Party of North Carolina

Ryan Rabah
State Vice Chair
We the People Party of North Carolina

Angela Humphries
At-Large Executive Committee Member
Libertarian Party of North Carolina

Robert Browder
At-Large Executive Committee Member
Libertarian Party of North Carolina

Evan Hess
Executive Board Member
Forward Party of North Carolina

Cliff Hamill
Executive Board Member
Forward Party of North Carolina

Jack Reneo
Executive Board Member
Forward Party of North Carolina

Josh Peters
Executive Board Member
Forward Party of North Carolina

Matthew P. Hoh
2022 Candidate for U.S. Senate
North Carolina Green Party

Rob Yates
Communications Director
Libertarian Party of North Carolina
Forward Party of North Carolina


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  • Ryan Brown
    published this page in News 2024-07-09 09:45:53 -0400
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