Hi, I'm new to the LP and would like to help collect signatures for ballot access.  What are the necessary qualifications for someone to do so?  Section E of the nomination papers make it look like the collector must be "commissioned".

Also, item number 3 under "Printing Instructions" on the papers download page suggests that there should be instructions included with the nomination papers.  The file, however, has only the two pages for the nomination form itself.  Did I miss something?

Thanks for the response David.

New questions:

1. By when should I submit my signatures to the party?

2. Should I number all of my pages (if I have more than one) or are they numbered after they're all collected by the party?

Jonson

I just printed the forms and will be bringing them to our Ron Paul meetup meeting tomorrow (I don't have far to go, we're meeting in my restaurant! lol) but I wanted to ask if any thought has been given to collecting a lot of signatures the way the Ron Paul group did - that is, let people come to us.

I know we did that several times, a few times at my place while it was closed, once at a Barnes and Noble, and another couple of times a Pizza shop owned by one of our guys, and we got hundreds of sigs that way. Now we did have quite an extensive email list to notify (about 600 emails in Lehigh and Northampton) about the signature events, but we should have some emails shouldn't we?

A former Libertarian now green has suggested to me that we do a combined meeting. They sign our ballot and we sign theirs. Thoughts?

Samantha

A former L now G?   That's a first.  Do you have any insight of the switch?  Sounds like someone is confused.

Just to update everyone, it looks like we have about 50,000 signatures in hand at the moment and still have volunteers turning in papers. If everyone could get their signatures wrapped up, papers notarized and send them no later than Saturday, July 19 to:

Libertarian Party of Pennsylvania
3915 Union Deposit Road, Box #223
Harrisburg, PA 17109

that would be ideal. I believe there may be a couple of late-entry district candidates that are still looking for signatures, so please let me know if anyone needs extra help at this point.

Thank You to all who contributed to making this one of the best nomination paper drives ever! It does not look like the number of signatures will be a problem for us, even if there is a challenge. Please send in every paper you have, as the more we turn in the better it will be!

To put this in some perspective, the Green Party has just called off their nomination paper drive as they only have about 7,000 signatures with little hope of reaching the required 24,666. It remains to be seen if Ralph Nader will be on the ballot, but I believe his crew will be able to get him enough signatures.

Mik Robertson

The 24,666 number means we get our statewide candidates on the ballot this year, and that is all. If any statewide candidate gets more than 2% of the vote in November, then we get what is called "Minor Party" status. That means our candidates will have to file different forms when they go to get a similar (or perhaps much larger) number of signatures in the 2010 election. It also means the Libertarian Party gets a box on the voter registration forms that people can check to register as a Libertarian voter, rather than having to check the "other" box and write in Libertarian.

Under current election law, our status will not change significantly until there are 15% of the registered voters registered as Libertarian (right now it is about 0.5%). At that point we would be forced to participate in the primary election system, which we are currently precluded from. Hopefully the election laws in PA will change to not only make ballot access more uniform, but remove the compulsion to have taxpayer funded nominations.

Mik Robertson