Title: Motion to Approve the Calling of Libertarian Presidential Preference Primary in March 2024
Mover: Hector Roos
I move for the LPF to approve the following Resolution for the LPF to call for a Libertarian Presidential Preference Primary in March 19, 2024 to coincide with the other parties’ presidential primaries; directing the Chair to make the arrangements with the Florida Secretary of State according to Florida law; and for publication of this resolution on all LPF communication platforms. The resolution is as follows:
Title: LPF Calls for a Libertarian Presidential Primary in March 2024
Whereas, the Libertarian Party of Florida finds that holding primaries and inviting the public to participate in them is a practical strategy to recruit new members and build coalitions; and
Whereas, Florida Law requires primaries when there is more than one party candidate running for the same partisan office, except for President where the presidential preference primary is optional for minor parties; and
Whereas, the Libertarian Party of Florida regularly runs candidates for President there is an opportunity every four years to hold a Presidential Preference Primary and invite members of the public who are not registered to vote as Libertarian to participate.
Therefore be it,
Resolved, on this day, that the Libertarian Party of Florida will call for a Presidential Preference Primary to take place on March 19, 2024 alongside those primaries for other parties with the list of candidates to be transmitted to the Florida Secretary of State as follows:
Justin Amash
Spike Cohen
Jacob Hornberger
Mike ter Maat
Lars Mapstead
Chase Oliver
Joshua Rodriguez
Dave Smith
that is subject to change through the November 30, 2023 deadline; and
Resolved, the Libertarian Party of Florida will also allow voters, especially “No Party Affiliated” or independent voters be allowed to participate in this Libertarian Presidential Preference Primary; and
Resolved, the Libertarian Party of Florida will attempt to invite those voters who chose to participate in the Libertarian Presidential Preference Primary to join the party and/or work in coalition.
Rationale:
Calling for our own Presidential Preference Primary that is not at our cost (already paid for in the Florida state budget) is an obvious activity to encourage our own LPF voters to participate in.
However, it is an added benefit that we can allow independent voters, particularly NPA voters to participate in our election. The idea of doing this (which is not unique around the country) is to encourage more people to participate with the LPF and to remember to come back in November to vote for their candidate. This would allow us to reach voters who we could not reach before.
It is the policy of the LPF through the LPF Platform that we get to call our own shots with regards to how we organize ourselves and the rules we set for our primaries and conventions. Asking for independent voters to participate in the presidential primary (not the August primaries which we won’t have anyway) is a first step to putting our principles into practice.
In all likelihood, the Secretary of State will probably say “NO” to our request to allow non-LP voters into the Presidential Preference Primary because of Florida law. But the law about us having a Presidential Preference Primary is definitely in our favor.
