UPDATE: August 22, 2019
It’s official. The Libertarian Party of Arkansas has been certified as a “New Political Party” in Arkansas for the 2020 elections!
The certification was issued after officers of the Party submitted affidavits required by A.C.A §7-3-108(b) — declaring, among other things, that “The Libertarian Party of Arkansas does not either directly or indirectly carry on, advocate, teach, justify, aid, or abet a program of sabotage, force and violence, sedition, or treason against the United States of America of the state of Arkansas.”
Meanwhile, both the trial judge and the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals have declined to halt the court injunction that required the Secretary of State to accept our petitions as sufficient for political-party status.
The Libertarian Party will be on the ballot and is recruiting candidates for the 2020 election.
July 29, 2019
In a letter to the Chair of the Libertarian Party of Arkansas dated July 29, 2019, Arkansas Secretary of State John Thurston acknowledged that the petitions submitted by the party on June 28 are sufficient for recognizing the LPAR as a new political party. Of 18,702 petition signatures checked, 12,749 were found to be valid.
The letter noted that the number of signatures did not reach the threshold established by recent legislation (26,746) but it did satisfy the requirement of 10,000 valid signatures, as required by a Preliminary Injunction from the U.S. Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas, issued by Judge Kristine Baker on July 3. The LPAR had requested and been granted the injunction from the court, arguing that the increase in the signature requirement was unnecessary and unwarranted, and represented an infringement of the constitutional rights of its members and the voters of Arkansas.
The Secretary of State’s letter went on to point out that his office has appealed the injunction and notified the LPAR that if his office prevails on that appeal, he would withdraw the party’s official recognition.
Read the letter here: 2020 Libertarians – Letter of Sufficiency
