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Libertarian Party of Maryland

Ballot access, or the ability to run candidates, is mission critical for a political party.  To maintain ballot access permanently we must have 35,000 people (1% of the electorate as specified in the law plus a little wiggle room) registered Libertarian. While we build towards that goal, we need to collect 10,000 valid petition signatures every four years; we extended ballot access through December 31, 2014 after winning a court decision in June 2011. The Board of Elections has appealed the case and it is unknown when that appeal will be heard.

The petition ballot access drive is currently complete!

If you want to help, please:
  • collect petition signatures;
  • register Libertarian;
  • register others Libertarian; and
  • contribute otherwise.
Your rapid and dutiful assistance with ballot access - helping to pay off the "ballot access tax" permanently - will ensure that parallel efforts in building the infrastructure to support successful campaigns and attracting, recruiting and training quality candidates can have our full attention from 2011 to 2014 and beyond.
The dedicated activist will want to get a clipboard or three (foam boards and rubber bands work too), print out a stack of petitions, registration forms, registration handouts and membership/information forms (you'll find all of these on this page), be equipped with a good pair of shoes, a water bottle, weather appropriate clothing plus sunscreen if needed.  After carefully studying the petition instructions go find people and ask if they are registered voters in the State of Maryland.  If they are, ask them to sign the petition.  If they aren't registered, or after they have signed the petition, ask people to register Libertarian to help you out for ballot access.  After they register give them the handout.  If you get someone really interested, have them fill out the membership/information form, too. 

Petition Instructions

Download the petition here. Only one side per page can be used.

Only registered voters' signatures count. Each page must be used only for a single county or Baltimore City. The relevant address is the one the Board of Elections shows as the person's residence. PO boxes are generally rejected unless for the rare circumstance where the registration address itself is a PO box. Business addresses are also not valid. Remember, the local county Board of Elections actually matches the submitted petition address with their list of registered voter addresses: no match means the signature does not count.

The information should be written as clearly as possible; block lettering (printing) is desired, except for the signature, of course.

The printed name should match the signature as provided.

The date of birth is recommended but not actually required. If the voter balks, ask for the month and day only; or the month and year only. Tell them it is the Board of Elections asking so that they can verify the signature.

Anyone, including the circulator, may write the voter's information on the form; but the signature must be that of the voter.

Voters can sign similar petitions for other political parties, but naturally can only sign once per party. It creates no obligation to support the party or its candidates. You might explain that while the form says "New Political Party" in our case it really means "Renew" our existing political party. Most people do not know that we are required to collect signatures just to exist and to be able to place candidates on the ballot.

You can assure signers that the MdLP will not use this information for any other purpose and that they will not be put on any mailing list. Tell them that the form is a Maryland Board of Elections form and that it is the state requesting the information – not us. If they want information on the LP, pass that request along as a separate matter.

The circulator must be 18 years old at the time the voter fills out the form, but does not have to be a registered voter nor a resident of the relevant county (or even the state of Maryland).

Fill out the circulator's block after the page has been completed. Address stickers are okay (but add the telephone number). Be certain to fill out the circulator's signature and date. The circulator's date must be after the most recent voter's signature date.

Mail the original sheet(s) in to the PO Box 176 address. Please send them in as you collect them.

To assist you in collecting signatures, it might be helpful to read the article on page 12 of the October 2006 issue of the Free? State Libertarian (don't use the old form there, though!). Here is a blurb you can use for your clipboards.

Thank You!!!

Registration

Please download the voter registration application and register Libertarian.  Return it to the address below.  If you are willing to register others, you should contact your local election board and take the Voter Registration Volunteer training or get involved with your local county or campus organization for training and to locate outreach events where you can register others. 

Regardless, you should ask your family, friends, neighbors and co-workers to register Libertarian "to help keep a third party on the ballot."  You may want to lead with asking them to sign the petition first (it's an easier sell) above...  You can give out this registration handout to people you register, which explains how we will use their information. 

It is vitally important that with any registration you get that you:
  1. ask them to write "more info" or "reg only" on the top, and
  2. send it to the address below - NOT to the local Board of Elections.
If they write "more info" we will send them mailings to join, volunteer etc.  If they write "reg only" for registration only, we will at most (and maybe not even then) send them a letter before every primary letting them know how they can participate in the convention(s) to select Libertarian Party candidates.  As we purchase voter registration lists and solicit to them, it is important to track the "reg only" folks so that we do not mail to them inappropriately when they show up as new registrants. 

Join/Contribute Otherwise

Please join the Libertarian Party of Maryland.  You can also indicate your volunteer and political interests and contribute for ballot access using the form below.  Please ask others with an interest to join while you are petitioning and registering people. Additionally, you can volunteer for support tasks:  validating petitions, helping with mailings, transportation, hosting out-of-state petitioners - maybe you want to take on volunteer coordination?

Send it in...

Send your memberships, contributions, and registrations here:
    Libertarian Party of Maryland
    PO Box 176
    Abingdon, MD 21009-0176

Additional Reading:

All documents for download referred to on this page: