And They Call Libertarians Conspiracy Theorists?

croppedlpconvention.JPGYou’ve probably never heard me say anything positive about Diebold before. To be sure, I’m the one who advised Michael Badnarik to pursue recount efforts and related lawsuits in Ohio over the 2004 presidential elections. The Libertarian Party is running a candidate against Ken Blackwell, as well. With this background in place, I’ll tell you about the fun we had with this one at the office today.

Over at Democratic Underground, they are asking:

In the special election PAUL KING got 2201 votes, but King a libertarian, in his own Primary only got: 536 votes. Where did the 1665 votes come from?

Paul King is the LP candidate who recently ran against Republican Brian Bilbray and Democrat Francine Busby in the CA-50 special election for Duke Cunningham’s recently vacated seat. What they spent is a lot of time researching why King’s vote total bumped way up as compared to his primary returns and why it wasn’t consistent with Libertarian candidates in neighboring districts.

At Huffington Post, they seem to think Diebold is involved:

The CA-50 special election came up and here’s where everyone fell short. Here was an opportunity for Markos to bring up the highly dubious Diebold machines used in t’t he election and how election volunteers were allowed to bring the machines home. In addition, where was the mention that, with Bilbray’s margin of victory at round 6,000 votes, there are still, according to the San Diego County Registrar of Voters, more than 34,000 absentee and provisional ballots that haven’t been counted yet? Why did Busby concede knowing this? Why did Libertarian candidate Paul King receive roughly 500 more votes (2201 votes so far) than any other Libertarian running (around 1700 each) in Tuesday’s vote? Even if the additional ballots are counted and Bilbray still wins, there are some puzzling questions that need answers.

Guess what, guys. It’s the new super top secret GOTV tool the Libertarian Party will be implementing soon. All of the details won’t be announced until the LP Convention, but here’s the teaser we put out (since everyone gave us such a sweet opening for it) today:

Technology’s hand was at work, but it wasn’t Diebold deviousness. Rather, it was a successful trial run of a new LP GOTV (Get Out the Vote) project and the hard work of a handful of dedicated Libertarians who volunteered their time.

Developed by LPHQ and one great consultant, this new tool allows Libertarian volunteers to help boost LP vote totals, including gaining and maintaining ballot status. .

Stay tuned for more. This project is set to be officially unveiled at this year’s Libertarian Party National Convention over July Fourth Weekend.

I’d suggest we could all remove our tin foil hats if I hadn’t found out about some mystery lettering (illustrated above) at the front page for the LP Convention site. Perhaps the Libertarian Party has been hacked by evil Diebold programmers after all.

posted Jun 22nd, 2006 by Stephen Gordon
  • http://www.ongforcuregent.com Daniel Ong

    So that’s what the secret decoder ring is for!

  • http://www.gabejohnson.org/ Gabe J

    man, I am poor and hungry here in florida, and trying like hell to push the party, given that i cannot attend the national convention, one wonders how one can, since i must, stay abreast of this gotv program, and what exactly it involves. Let it be known that though i am not present at the convention, whatever can be done on my part will, i can assure you, be done.

  • http://thetenth.blogspot.com Philanthropic Patriot

    The funny thing is that the 34K votes they cited were for ALL of San Diego and not just for this one district.

  • http://libertarianyouth.blogspot.com Nigel Watt

    I’ll copy-paste what I posted over at lp.org/yourturn/:

    Having signed up to volunteer for the Libertarian Party three times before and never hearing a peep, what says that I will this time?

  • Sandra Kallander

    Speaking of tinfoil hats, apparently it is important not to use aluminum. An empirical study at MIT concluded that “certain frequencies are in fact greatly amplified” by aluminum.

    “These amplified frequencies coincide with radio bands reserved for government use according to the Federal Communication Commission (FCC). Statistical evidence suggests the use of helmets may in fact enhance the government’s invasive abilities. We speculate that the government may in fact have started the helmet craze for this reason.” This was not the only research done on the issue and alternate theories abound involving tinfoil and leadfoil hats.

    http://people.csail.mit.edu/rahimi/helmet/

    See you at the convention!

  • Devious David

    As for the deviousness, leave that to me.

  • Stephen Gordon

    LOL, DD.

  • Gary Odom

    This might be a good place to ask a question of my Libertarian friends. I notice that you label this meeting as a National Convention. We in the Constitution Party have 1 National Convention every four years (in conjunction with the presidntial election) and two national committee meetings per year. I was just wondering what transpires at this mid-term national convention, that is different from your (I presume) regular national committee meetings, if you don’t mind me asking. I’m just curious. Obviously you can and will run things anyway you see fit.

  • Graham

    Hmmm. I’ve never voted in any primary. I’ve voted in several elections though. I know a lot of people who have never voted in a primary, but vote in most/all elections. I don’t think I’ve had the option of voting in a LP primary. As I doubt a LP racce in my voting area has ever been contested, I doubt I would if given the chance. Shouldn’t all candidates get more votes in the general election? Especially if primaries are heavily contested and the party faithful then rally around the candidate who emerges.. I would also HOPE an LP candidate would get votes outside of the card-carrying LP faithful. If not that’s pointless and sad ( though I’m sure it’s just what many “purists” and others want). And don’t some people just vote randomly or NOTA ( or anybody but Dem, or anybody but Rep, and so on).

  • http://www.rockhoward.org Rock Howard

    From the LP Bylaws:

    Regular Conventions:
    The Party shall hold a Regular Convention every two years … All business required to be conducted at Regular Conventions shall be conducted at Regular Conventions only.

    and:

    The standing order of business for a Regular Convention shall be as follows:

    Call to order
    Credentials Committee report
    Adoption of agenda
    Retention of planks from the previous platform
    Treasurer’s report
    Bylaws and Rules Committee report (Non-nominating conventions only)
    Platform Committee report
    Final retention of platform planks
    Nomination of Party candidates for President and Vice-President (in appropriate years) including ratification of the National Campaign Platform
    Election of Party Officers and at-large members of the National Committee
    Election of Judicial Committee
    Resolutions
    Other business

    Hope that helps!

  • Gary Odom

    Thanks! Looks like the major feature is that the national platform is re-visited every two years. Good way to keep it up- to -date. Leave it to Libertarians to think “outside the box.” Thanks again.

  • http://www.badnarik.org Michael Badnarik

    Wow! My good friend, Paul King (whom I’ve never met), gets a few hundred extra votes in the election and the Democrats start screaming about vote fraud? Too bad there’s nothing in the news to suggest that voters are disgusted with BOTH of the major parties – such as a congressional approval rating of 18%. Next they’ll be complaining that Libertarians earn any votes at all!

    Imagine how things are going to come unglued for the two major parties when I actually WIN my congressional race! (Insert video of fireworks with 1812 Overture sound track.)

    I look forward to learning more about our “secret technology” (aka “hard work”) at the national convention. I hope that everyone who is able, chooses to attend. I’m excited about rekindling the many friendships I’ve made over the last three years, and I hope I have an opportunity to shake Paul King’s hand if he’s there.

    Lighting the fires of Liberty, one heart at a time!
    (Play time is over. I’ve got to get back to work.)

  • hlm

    Not hard to understand. Republicans disgusted at their own party. Can’t stomach Democrats so King total goes up in that district especially since incumbent GOP candidate in prison as crook. No surprise. Dumb Democrats. Alas I fear there will be no howling in Texas or 1812 Overture. If Michael gets more than 15 percent I’ll be surprised.

  • IanC

    hlm — don’t ever forget that in a 3-way race the winning individual is generally the guy who gets 34%.

    Badnarik’ll likely get somewhere close to that. I can’t *quite* bring myself to believe he’ll win… but I am *hoping* for it.