May 1998
Affiliate News: Hawaii
What's new -- even though it's 25 years old? The Hawaii Libertarian Party, which has been reinstated as an official party after a "draining" petition drive.The party submitted 5,884 petitions to the state government, and was recognized as an "official" political party on March 23.
"Part of the difficulty we encountered in our petition drive was having to stop and explain to people who thought we were already on the ballot why we were being called a 'new' political party," said State Chair Roger Taylor.
State law requires parties to petition to get on the ballot if they are in fact new, or if they didn't get 10% of the vote in the last election -- which is what happened to the Hawaii LP. So Libertarians had to mount a signature drive, at a cost of $3,300.
"The Libertarian Party and our insistence on smaller, less wasteful, less intrusive government are here to stay -- and we'll be an alternative to the Democrats and Republicans this fall," said Taylor.
