The Libertarian Party of Maine is now an official political party, a designation that will allow presidential candidate Gary Johnson to appear on the November ballot.
The official designation follows three-year battle and a decision by a District Court judge that bought party officials more time to gather enough enrollments to qualify.
Christopher Lyons, chairman of the Libertarian Party of Maine, said the designation comes after a grassroots effort to gather 5,000 enrollments by Tuesday.
“Most of it was from grassroots, actually just people within the committee or people who are excited to be Libertarians asking other people to register as Libertarians,” Lyons says.
According to Maine law, a new party can form if at least 5,000 voters enroll in the party by the Dec. 1 deadline. Last year, the Libertarian Party of Maine successfully challenged this provision in court after the party submitted just over 4,500 valid enrollments.
In late May, U.S. District Court Judge John A. Woodcock extended the deadline, allowing the party until Tuesday to continue collecting enrollments. Today, secretary of state confirmed that the party gathered just over 630 new valid enrollments to push the party over the qualifying threshold.
Now the party can certify their presidential and vice presidential candidates’ names, which Lyons says was the goal all along. The Libertarians join the Democratic, Green Independent and Republican parties as official parties in Maine.
To retain official status, parties must have at least 10,000 registered voters who are enrolled in a party cast ballots in the general election, something Lyons says he’s hopeful will happen.
