updated May 23, 2020

2020 Libertarian Party Convention Background

Online Session May 22-24 Will Select Presidential and Vice Presidential Nominees

The convention, conducted via Zoom Webinar, is being broadcast here:
https://www.youtube.com/user/LibertarianParty

The convention had been scheduled to be held May 19-26 in Austin, TX but the hotel pulled out of the arrangement on April 26.  In a May 2 teleconference meeting the Libertarian National Committee LNC voted to postpone the convention, and in a May 9 teleconference the LNC opted for a two-part convention.  The online portion is to be held May 22-24 to select the presidential and vice presidential nominees; this is to comply with ballot access deadlines.  The in-person portion for committee meetings and breakout sessions is to be held in Orlando from July 7-12.


ONLINE:
Sunday, May 17th – Final Credentials Committee Report Pre-convention

Thursday, May 21st – Presidential Debate (8PM Eastern Time) and Vice-Presidential Debate (approx 9:30PM Eastern Time)

Friday, May 22nd – Convention opens at 6PM Eastern Time.  Credentials report. Adoption of Agenda.

Saturday, May 23rd – Business resumes at 10AM Eastern Time. Nomination process for 2020 Libertarian Presidential Nominee

Sunday, May 24th – Business resumes at 10AM Eastern Time.  Nomination process for 2020 Libertarian Vice-Presidential Nominee

ORLANDO:
Tuesday, July 7th – Pre-registration, early check-in.

Wednesday, July 8th – Registration, check-in, committee meetings, break-out sessions, exhibitors.

Thursday, July 9th – In-person business opens. Registration, check-in, convention business, break-out sessions, exhibitors.

Friday, July 10th –  Business continues. Registration, check-in, convention business, break-out sessions, exhibitors.

Saturday, July 11th – Registration, check-in, convention business, break-out sessions, exhibitors. Ticketed Gala event.

Sunday, July 12th – Business concludes. Break-out sessions, exhibitors. Close with a campaign rally for POTUS/VPOTUS candidates.

Candidates

  • Six candidates qualified to be placed in nomination.
Per Convention Special Rules of Order, candidates needed support of at least 30 registered delegates to be nominated.  Before the Convention, over two dozen individuals, some well-known in libertarian circles, and others more obscure, ran as presidential candidates.  Several of these candidates started running in 2018 (Adam Kokesh was first to formally enter in Jan. 2018); Judge Jim Gray was a late entrant, announcing his candidacy on April 13, 2020.  The most high-profile potential candidate, U.S. Rep. Justin Amash of Michigan, announced an exploratory committee Apr. 28, 2020 but ended his effort on May 16.

There were Libertarian presidential primaries on the ballot alongside major party primaries in several states (CA, MA, NC, OK, MO, NE).  In other states Libertarian parties held party-run contests.  According to Wikipedia, Hornberger won seven of these contests, Supreme two, Jorgensen one and uncommitted one.  Also according to Wikipedia, candidates engaged in 22 debates from one on Mar. 31, 2019 in Washington State and to a concluding online debate on the eve of the Convention, May 21, 2020.  The number of candidates participating ranged from two to ten; the concluding debate featured five top candidates: Hornberger, Jorgensen, Monz, Gray and Supreme. 

The vice presidential nominee is selected in a separate vote.  Several candidates have selected running mates: Jim Gray with Larry Sharpe, Vermin Supreme with Spike Cohen and Adam Kokesh with John McAfee.  A vote to determine participation in the May 21 debate found the  following unofficial totals: Hornberger 224, Jorgensen 189, Monz 113, Gray 109, Supreme 100, Kokesh 71, Vohra 24, Behrman 16, Robb 13, Ardeleanu 9.

reprinted from https://www.lp.org/libertarian-party-candidates/2020

Sorinne Ardeleanu

Daniel Behrman

Kenneth Blevins

Keenan Dunham

Brian Ellison

Souraya Faas

Erik Gerhardt

Jim Gray
 Phil Gray

Jedidah Hill

Jacob Hornberger

Jo Jorgensen

Adam Kokesh

Shawn McCutcheon

John Monds

James Ogle
 Steve Richey

Sam Robb

Rhett Smith

Vermin Supreme

Louis Vanacore

Arvin Vohra

The list above includes Libertarian Party 2020 presidential candidates who have met the following criteria, specified by the Libertarian National Committee. The criteria for presidential candidates to be recognized on any Libertarian Party platform is as follows:

1. Must have filed FEC-2 with the Federal Election Commission
2. The candidate is a sustaining member of the national LP
3. The candidate is legally qualified to hold the office and must be registered as Libertarian (if their home state has registration by party)
4. The candidate must have a functional website and/or Facebook page that can be linked from lp.org
5. The candidate has professional quality photos, especially a head shot and at least a one minute video with audio of the candidate speaking .
6. The candidate must have a dedicated campaign manager
7. The candidate must use the word “Libertarian” in his or her campaign materials
Note: not meeting the criteria does not prevent a presidential candidate from running for and obtaining the Libertarian Party presidential nomination.

_______
ed. note:
Kim Ruff ended campaign Jan. 11, 2020
Former Gov. and Sen. Lincoln Chafee ended campaign Apr. 5, 2020
Mark Whitney ended campaign Apr. 23, 2020
Ken Armstrong switched to running for vice president on April 29, 2020
U.S. Rep. Justin Amash announced exploratory committee Apr. 28, 2020 but ended May 16, 2020 (+)

_________________________


reprinted from Libertarian Party Bylaws, Convention Special Rules, and Judicial Committee Rules of Appellate Procedure adopted in Convention July 2018, New Orleans, Louisiana

Convention Special Rules of Order of the Libertarian Party
RULE 7: NOMINATION OF PRESIDENTIAL AND VICE-PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES

1. No person shall be nominated for President or Vice-President unless at least 30 registered delegates join in the nomination in writing submitted to the Chair. No delegate may join in nominating more than one candidate for each office. The affixing of signatures to a nominating petition per this requirement shall be effected by a transfer of signature tokens issued by the Credentials Committee.

2. The Party's nominee for President shall be chosen by majority vote. If no candidate has attained a majority, the candidate with the fewest votes and any candidates polling less than 5% shall be struck from subsequent ballots. This procedure shall be repeated after every ballot in which no candidate has received a majority vote, until one candidate attains a majority.

3. Each delegation shall tabulate its total vote, and the delegation chair shall deliver a written total to the Secretary. When all the delegations have submitted their votes, the Secretary shall declare the voting closed. At this point, an announcement of each delegation's vote total shall be made by delegation chairs in alphabetical order beginning with a randomly selected delegation.

4. The Party's nominee for Vice-President shall be chosen by the same procedure as for the Presidential nominee except that the Presidential nominee shall have the privilege of addressing the Convention for 5 minutes, after nominations have been made but before voting has begun, for the purpose of endorsing or objecting to any of the Vice-Presidential nominees. Nominations for Vice-President shall close after selection of the Presidential nominee.

5. Nominating and seconding speeches for each candidate shall be limited in duration as follows: a. President: Total of 16 minutes;
b. Vice-President: Total of 11 minutes.
A delegate who collects the required number of nominating tokens so designated may speak up to 5 minutes in favor of voting for None Of The Above.
https://www.lp.org/2020-lnc-convention-delegation-allocation/

Delegate Allocation

AL  13
KY 11
ND  4


AK  6
LA  13
OH  45


AZ  24
ME  8
OK  14


AR  7
MD  20
OR  15


CA  107
MA  22
PA  40


CO  35
MI  34
RI  3


CT  13
MN  20
SC  17


DE  4
MS  6
SD  5


DC  3
MO  19
TN  23


FL  54
MT  6
TX  73


GA  29
NE  8
UT  8


HI  5
NV  13
VT  3


ID  6
NH  11
VA  35


IL  37
NJ  20
WA  35


IN  30
NM  13
WV  6


IA  11
NY  48
WI  20


KS  10
NC  29
WY  4



More Relevant Sections from Libertarian Party Bylaws, Convention Special Rules, and Judicial Committee Rules of Appellate Procedure adopted in Convention July 2018, New Orleans, Louisiana

ARTICLE 10: CONVENTIONS

1. Regular Conventions: The Party shall hold a Regular Convention every two years, at a time and place selected by the National Committee. Regular Conventions shall be held sometime during the period of July of an odd-numbered year through August of an even-numbered year. All business required to be conducted at Regular Conventions shall be conducted at Regular Conventions only.

2. Delegates:
a. Delegates shall be required to be members of either the Party or an affiliate party. At all Regular Conventions delegates shall be those so accredited who have registered at the Convention.
b. Any federal or state law to the contrary notwithstanding, delegates to a Regular Convention shall be selected by a method adopted by each affiliate party; provided however, that only members of the Party as defined in these Bylaws, or members of the affiliate party as defined in the constitution or bylaws of such affiliate party, shall be eligible to vote for the selection of delegates to a Regular Convention.

3. Affiliate Party Delegate Entitlements:
Each affiliate party shall be entitled to send delegates to each Regular Convention on the following basis:
a. One delegate for each 0.14 percent, or fraction thereof, of the total Party sustaining membership in that affiliate; provided that at least one such delegate must be a resident of that State or District.
b. One delegate for each 0.35 percent, or fraction thereof, of the votes cast nationwide for the Libertarian Party candidate in the most recent presidential election, cast in that affiliate's state.

4. Delegate Allocation:
a. In order to be counted for delegate allocation, sustaining membership applications must be sent to the National Headquarters by either the individual member or the affiliate party and received or postmarked no later than the last day of the seventh month prior to the Regular Convention.
b. The Secretary shall make a count of the sustaining members qualified under the requirements set forth here and shall compute the delegate allocations for the affiliate parties. Notification of the sustaining membership totals and allocation totals shall be sent by the Secretary to the Chair of each affiliate party no later than the last day of the sixth month prior to a Regular Convention.
c. A list of the names and addresses of all delegates and alternates chosen by each affiliate party shall be sent to the Credentials Committee no later than one month prior to start of the first general session of the Regular Convention. Amendments to such lists may be made by the affiliate parties and submitted to the Credentials Committee until the close of the Credentials Committee meeting preceding the Convention. The number of alternates' names submitted shall not exceed the greater of 50 or the number of delegates allocated.
d. Failure to submit a listing of delegate/alternate names and addresses, as prescribed within these Bylaws, shall cause no delegation to be registered from that affiliate party.
e. By seven-eighths vote, the Convention may approve additional delegates and alternates whose names and addresses are submitted to the Credentials Committee during the Convention.

5. Delegate List:
Any Party member shall be provided, upon request and payment of copying and mailing costs, a list of the names and addresses of all delegates selected to attend and those who actually attended the most recent two Conventions, with those who attended clearly identified, and all delegates / alternates selected to the upcoming convention, if available.

6. Voting Eligibility:
a. Use of the unit rule or unit voting is prohibited at national conventions.
b. Duly selected alternates may be freely substituted for any members of their delegation who are temporarily or permanently absent from the floor, provided the procedure has been clearly specified by the affiliate party in advance of the Convention, and the Credentials Committee has been provided with lists of the affiliate party's delegates and alternates as well as a copy of the affiliate party's rules governing substitutions.
c. An alternate, upon certification by the Credentials Committee, may function as a delegate whenever a delegate of the same state has not been registered in attendance. This status shall continue until the absent delegate registers in attendance. If the affiliate party has made no provision for filling delegate vacancies, the alternate substitute shall be decided by drawing lots.
d. If the affiliate party has made no other provision, an alternate may temporarily vote in place of a delegate from the same state while he or she has the written consent of that delegate; however, no delegate may cast more than one vote on a question.
e. All members must wear the identification badge issued upon registration in order to be admitted to the Convention hall.

7. Votes cast for "None of the Above" in voting on the Party's nominees for President and VicePresident, the Party Officers, and at-large members of the National Committee, shall be considered valid. Should a majority of the votes be cast for "None of the Above" in the Presidential or Vice-Presidential balloting, no candidate shall be nominated for that office. Should "None of the Above" be selected for any Party office, that position shall be declared vacant and none of the losing candidates for that position may be selected to fill the vacancy for that term of



ARTICLE 14: PRESIDENTIAL AND VICE-PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGNS

1. Nominations of candidates for President and Vice-President of the United States may be made only at the Regular Convention immediately preceding a Presidential election.

2. No candidate may be nominated for President or Vice-President who is ineligible under the United States Constitution, who has not expressed a willingness to accept the nomination of the Party, who served as a stand-in candidate during the current election cycle, or who is not a sustaining member of the Party. A stand-in is an individual who has agreed to be placed on a state affiliate’s nomination petition prior to the selection of nominees by the Libertarian Party at Convention.

3. In the event of the death, resignation, disqualification or suspension of the nomination of the Party's nominee for President, the Vice-Presidential nominee shall become the Presidential nominee. Two-thirds of the entire membership of the National Committee may, at a meeting, fill a Vice-Presidential vacancy, and, if necessary, a simultaneous Presidential vacancy.

4. The National Committee shall respect the vote of the delegates at Nominating Conventions and provide full support for the Party’s nominee for President and nominee for Vice-President as long as their campaigns are conducted in accordance with the Platform of the Party.

5. A candidate's nomination may be suspended by a 3/4 vote of the entire membership of the National Committee at a meeting. That candidate's nomination shall then be declared null and void unless the suspended candidate appeals the suspension to the Judicial Committee within seven days of receipt of notification of suspension. The resolution of suspension must state the specific reasons for suspension and must be signed by each member of the National Committee agreeing thereto. The Judicial Committee shall meet and act on this appeal within 30 days and before the election.



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