From a recent release by new LPNY Chair Andrew Kolstee:
Write-In Larry Sharpe for Governor!
Could This Be the Last Chance for New Yorkers to have a
Nationwide Libertarian candidate on our ballot in 2024?
Fellow Libertarians:
Larry Sharpe earned over 30,000 petition signatures and nearly 100,000 votes for Governor in 2018. According to New York State law at that time, that should have been enough for the Libertarian Party simply to assign him our party line on this year’s gubernatorial ballot.
But then-Gov. Cuomo and his machine devised a plot to deny him and us that earned right. Now it appears we have lost all our court challenges and appeals to keep Larry Sharpe’s name on the printed ballot. This also limits our ability to have a Libertarian candidate for President on the 2024 ballot.
At this point, almost the only way to restore our ability to get the nationally-chosen Libertarian Presidential candidate on the New York ballot in 2024 is if Larry Sharpe gets a minimum of 130,000 write-in votes, likely more to reach the 2% threshold, in the coming month.
This would be a record number of write-in votes by any candidate, but not by much. Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska exceeded 100,000 write-in votes in her successful re-election campaign in 2010. And last November, Mayor Byron Brown of Buffalo won his re-election campaign with over 36,000 write-ins.
Having spent so much money on our ballot-access court battles, we don’t have much to promote Larry Sharpe’s write-in campaign. So we will hope that you, our members and friends and allies, will step up—not with money but with a bit of your time. Just spread the word about this write-in campaign by forwarding this email to as many of your friends as you think might be open to hearing about it.
And who wouldn’t be open to writing in Larry Sharpe for Governor? For the first time since 1946, and the second time since 1872, New Yorkers have only two candidates for Governor to choose from on their printed ballot. The incumbent candidate would continue the wasteful spending, over-taxation, and single-party rule that has driven millions to leave New York. The other candidate supports fraudulent election claims by a former President, and he was willing to tolerate his own campaign’s fraudulent photocopying of 11,000 petition signatures, so as to put him on multiple party lines and thereby crowd out any real third choice on the printed ballot for Governor.
In contrast, Larry Sharpe and Libertarians have consistently fought for you and everyone to have a chance to vote for a variety of minor parties—not just our own. We partnered with the Green Party (very different from us in policy preferences) in a lawsuit to roll back Part ZZZ of Cuomo’s 2020 state budget, which the Legislature approved without committee hearings or debate, and which blocked ballot access for us and the Green Party and numerous other minor parties.
So please, use the sample ballot below as a guide, and share this email widely.
In Liberty,
Andrew Martin Kolstee
Chair, Libertarian Party of New York