I’ve heard a number of genuine, dyed-in-the-wool Libertarians lately talking about *not* voting for the party’s presidential candidate, Bob Barr. There are a lot of folks who just don’t think he was a good choice and I can understand that. That said, it’s important to consider all of the facts before making a decision like this one. In this case, one important fact is that the number of votes for a presidential candidate impacts the number of delegates that one’s state gets to the LP national conventions. This means that states with more people who support, and hence vote for, Barr are likely to get more national convention delegates than states with Libertarians who will refuse to vote for Barr on principle. Think about it! Personally, I want the most principled individuals serving as delegates to the LP national conventions. Of course, this advice is only what it is. I’m not necessarily urging anyone to take any specific course of action. What I am doing is urging everyone to consider all of the facts in this, as in any situation, prior to making a final decision.
I’ll be back later to read comments. For now, I’m off to go vote for Bob Barr.
Less
aynrkey
bostonteapartygoer
Kenn Jacobine
mattdharris
Mike Seebeck
Miche
paulie
Jim Davidson
ponggod
Stuart Richards
Todd Andrew Barnett
Fuck Barf and his fascist ideology.
Just voted for Bob Barr. It’s funny how many elections here in WV don’t even have Republicans, or have too few Republicans for the number of available seats, running. This is a pretty heavily Democratic state.
Nader and McKinney were on the presidential ballot, along with McCain and Obama here.
I wish we had more L candidates. In four years, I expect to.
I understand that Barr write-ins don’t count in WV, though.
But then again, Ron Paul write-ins don’t count in TX either.
As well, I’m not voting.
Posting a lot at
http://www.independentpoliticalreport.com/
today tho…
It’s unfortunate if Barr didn’t get registered as a certified write-in candidate here. I can still sign an affidavit that I wrote him in and that’ll give us one delegate for votes anyway (this has been done in other states with similar situations before.)
The campaign hasn’t really been in contact with the state party here though, I spoke to Jake W who was here a few times, offered some help including letting a friend of his who was coming crash at my place and stuff, but never really heard from anyone else. They pursued a court case to try and extend the time-frame for ballot petitioning, but it did not succeed. At some point they probably should have registered as a write-in anyway. I can’t speculate as to why they failed to do so.
The bar for ballot access here is kind of high. I think we’ll be able to do it in 2012, and I’ll hopefully have a gubernatorial candidate and run a credible campaign for him or her at that point so that the party can keep ballot access and never have to petition again.
I’m not going to vote for Bob Barr to support the Libertarian Party when the Libertarian Party being broken is the root cause of the problem in the first place. My state having fewer delegates to the next national convention is the LEAST of my concerns for the LP. So, as has been the case since 2004, I am a libertarian, not a Libertarian.
I held my nose and voted for Barr in AK, wishing that Palin had not been given the RP nomination. If it matters, hopefully, my vote helps us retain ballot access there.
Barr was –in my opinion– our worst candidate ever.
Wayne Root was –in my opinion– our best VP candidate ever.