The Washington State Libertarian Party is at the forefront of a critical legal battle to preserve the fundamental right of free association.
We’ve been in court against the State of Washington and the Grange sponsored I-872 - Top-Two primary.
With this new election system, any candidate can say they prefer the Libertarian Party on the public ballot.
This is a problem because privacy - for the individual and whomever they choose to associate - should be protected in the United States. With the Top-Two election, the State of Washington has, in effect, put our party’s name in the public domain.
As a private association, Libertarian Party members have gone through the process of drafting and ratifying our platform - which is a statement to voters about our values and policy goals.
Good and freedom loving people volunteer time and resources to our organization.
If Washington’s new Top-Two election is allowed to continue, there will likely not be a Libertarian Party anymore. Why have a private political association when any candidate - regardless of what they really believe - can claim our party’s name as a preference on the ballot? We have no say at all preventing any interloper or opportunist from usurping our good name for the public ballot.
We have been waging a battle for some time to protect our associational right to privacy. We’ve already gone all the way to the US Supreme Court. Now the case has been remanded to lower courts and that’s why we’re contacting you.
We are standing in the courtroom next to two unusual partners - the Washington State Democratic Party and the Washington State Republican Party. We have issues in the case exclusive to our party regarding the legal trademark of the name Libertarian. We must fund our own legal team. We need to stay in this fight or our side of this case may never be heard!
And for this we need every ounce of support you can give.
We must act immediately to present our case in the strongest possible way.
Please help us get the resources we need to protect private association. If we don’t fight this intrusion from The State, there very well may not be a Libertarian Party - or any other grassroots political organization - anymore.
Please give now to http://lpwa.org/contribute/
Scott~
For more details please visit: http://www.rankedchoice.blogspot.com/
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