On my Chase Oliver write-in

and voting, in general

Chase Oliver, the Libertarian candidate for President of the United States of America is on the ballot in 47 states and registered as an official write-in in the remaining three, one of which is New York State, my home of 11 years. If my chosen candidate was a ding-dong who missed deadlines, didn’t file paperwork, etc. that would be one thing but my need to write-in comes from a change in New York State law, detailed here.

In New York, a political party is defined as any political organization whose candidate for governor or president at the last preceding election polled at least 130,000 votes, or 2 percent of all votes cast for the office, whichever is greater. New York does not provide a process for political organizations to gain qualified status in advance of an election…In the event that a party's candidate fails to win the requisite votes, the party must re-qualify for recognition.

Emphasis mine.

It was my understanding this change was recent, but I was struggling to find when the change was made, until Wikipedia came through again.

The threshold for automatic ballot access was originally 50,000 votes every four years during the gubernatorial election. The current threshold was adopted in 2020 prior to the 2020 presidential election. The adoption of the current threshold has led to legal challenges from parties that qualified for automatic ballot access under the previous threshold but not the current one.

In New York, the Libertarians have consistently place third in presidential general elections. Grabbing from Wikipedia: 2020 60,383 votes, .7% of the total vote share; 2016 (listed as both Independence and Libertarian) 176,598, 2.3% of the total vote share; 2012 47,256, .67% of the total vote share.

As I adjust my tinfoil hat, I stare into my phone camera and state: It’s giving disenfranchisement, I fear. For the kids, you understand. And as I add a tinfoil brim and a sketched-on New York Yankees logo, I can’t help but wonder, were changes prior to the 2020 election because of the 2.3% domination of Gary Johnson?¹

And it’s not just New York making changes to prevent third party candidates. And yet, from Gallup in early October

Fifty-eight percent of U.S. adults agree that a third major party is needed in the U.S. because the Republican and Democratic parties “do such a poor job” of representing the American people, marking the 12th consecutive majority-level reading in Gallup’s trend that stretches back more than two decades. While down five percentage points from last year’s record high, it is still on par with the average 56% support level over the course of the trend since 2003.

Emphasis mine. Need I say more?

Further from the aforementioned Gallup article…

Third parties that have been established were either short lived or, like the Libertarian and Green Parties, have had little impact on federal and state elections other than bringing more attention to issues for voters or siphoning votes from major-party candidates, sometimes serving a spoiler role in elections.

I disagree that bringing attention to certain causes is “little impact”. Libertarians have been shifting the Overton window on drugs, sex work, and more for years (Chase on Andrew Heaton was an excellent summation of why voting gold matters). I once had an argusation with my brother about voting Libertarian in 2020. My point was that nothing I do makes a difference in New York City. Voting closes at 8:00pm ET and the race is called Dem by 8:00:01 most years. He suggested that I’m trusting everyone else to do a certain thing in order to do what I want with no consideration of others (this was 4 calendar years ago, so forgive me if I’m misrepresenting this conversation). I think that’s a good point, a true point. BUT the thing is, I am voting for what I believe is right, and assuming everyone else is doing the same.

If I uproot to a swing state in the next year, this calculation will become different, but I hope to be brave.

I used to not vote. As a cynical 21 year old in 2012, I rolled my eyes at a professor congratulating another student on having voted. I didn’t know how to vote in New York with a Maine ID, I figured people should know what and who they are voting for, which I didn’t, and that they should be an educated populace of voters.

Election day in 2013 (who was even being elected?!), I was tutoring in Brooklyn, and mentioned I wasn’t voting to an older black woman. With the patience I now see as saintly, she simply stated how strange it was to not, when so many people over so many years had to fight so hard for the opportunity, for the privilege, to participate in the democratic process.

I think about that a lot. My solution then for myself and others was to opt out. In…2016, it must have been, I encouraged people not to vote, reminding them on Facebook (lol) that it was an option, but if you didn’t want either candidate to win, that we don’t have to be locked into the binary chooses given to us.

Now, my solution is to work fucking harder. I’m a well-off, well-read person living in the center of the universe working in tech. If not me, then who? I want to learn more and understand who these people are that are in charge of us, that who, in VERY large and very small ways, can change and control our bodies, and what we can do and when. We have so little power to make changes in this system of government, the least we can do is take advantage of what we do have. I’d like to register folks to vote, to share resources, and interesting articles and info. I’d like to do more.

Around those 2016 Facebook days, I had just come back from my first trip to DC; I’d fell in love with FDR because of a statue of him sitting in his wheelchair. My boyfriend’s aunt and uncle were giving us the tour, and Uncle M. was also moved by this statue, telling me how rare it was to see FDR seated. I picked up this biography and in a chaotic time in America, started seeking advice from the late, great, FDR. This quote has remained with me over the years - when you reach the end of your rope, tie a knot in it and hang on.

Right now, that knot is the only thing keeping me from the abyss. So, I’d like to leave you some hope. With a little over a week to go, don’t be afraid to speak your mind about your candidate’s pros, and cons. Maybe, with a clearheaded defense, you can change some minds. Check your voter status and if you haven’t voted yet, make a plan to do so and stick to it. Check the rules in your state about what time during the workday you are allotted to vote.

If you vote, amazing. If you don’t, okay, but know why, even if just for yourself. Pick the candidate or party or none that best represents you, that represents the change you’d like to see. No matter what choice you make, make one. Don’t let the chance slip by. Tie that knot, and hang on.

Some shots from my ballot. Every NYC ballot has the three primary languages of the voting zone. In my case, English, Spanish, and Chinese

1. I jogged from Brooklyn to the UWS to attend a ballroom rally for Gary in Fall 2016. A friend from college stopped through to stay with us in BK after knocking on doors for Jeb fucking Bush in NH that fall. What a time to be alive.