AUGUSTA — A bid to create a Libertarian Party in Maine is moving forward, with organizers reporting that they have registered enough Libertarians to meet the 5,000-person threshold described in the law.
Jorge Maderal of Brunswick, chairman of a nonprofit organization called the Libertarian Party of Maine Inc., said Monday that his organization has met the challenge.
“By all accounts, we seem to have more than enough [voter registrations] turned in,” Maderal said in an email Monday to the Bangor Daily News.
Kristen Muszynski of the secretary of state’s office said Tuesday that it may be a few days before it is known whether the Libertarians met their goal because it will take a few days for towns across Maine to add the registrations to the state’s central voter database.
Efforts to form the party have been underway since early 2015 but ended up in court earlier this year after the state rejected nearly 2,000 registrations because they could not be verified as having previously been registered Maine voters.
Under Maine law, the process to form a new political party begins with the registration of at least 5,000 voters in the party, followed by the requirement that at least 10,000 registered voters from the new party vote in the next general election.
The Libertarians appealed the state’s rejection of its bid in January and the court initially ruled against the party. However, the court overturned its decision in May, after arguments by the libertarians’ attorney. The court restored 4,513 registrations that previously were deemed valid and gave Maderal and his group until July 12 to top the 5,000 threshold.
Muszynski said that as of Friday, which was the last time the voter database was checked, the Libertarians had achieved 388 new registrations of the 487 they need to meet the threshold of 5,000.
Nationally, the Libertarian Party is running former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson and former Massachusetts Gov. William Weld as its presidential ticket.
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