LPM Online

October 24, 2000

Contents

  1. Upcoming Events
  2. Help Pass Out Bilingual Literature in Dearborn
  3. The third party that makes sense
  4. Debate exclusion protest in G.R
  5. CMU Political Science Presentation (Debate?)
  6. Cutting to the Chase by Cutting out the Pretense

  1. Upcoming Events

    October 24, 2000 - 7:00 PM
    The monthly meeting of the Ottawa County Libertarian Party. This meeting will feature a debate over Proposal 1.
    Location: The Yellow Jacket Inn. 12011 Lake Michigan Drive, West Olive, MI.
    Contact: Jason C. Miller Phone: (616) 669-2851 E-mail: jcmiller@triton.net

    October 25, 2000 - 6:30 PM
    LP of Oakland County General Membership Meeting. Public welcome. Meet for dinner at 6:30PM, business begins at 7:30PM.
    Location: Sila's, 4033 W. 12 Mile Rd., Berkley. Sila's is located 2 blocks east of Greenfield on 12 Mile Rd.
    Contact: Greg Dirasian Phone: (248) 592-9731 E-mail: greg@newsnetpipeline.com

    October 26, 2000 - 7:00 PM
    Ballot Access Retention Committee meeting.
    Location: LPM Headquarters, 619 East Nine Mile in Hazel Park, one block east of I-75.
    Contact: Barb Goushaw Phone: (248) 355-5058 E-mail: bgoush@aol.com

    November 7, 2000
    Election Day - Don't forget to vote!
    Location: Precinct polling places across the state
    Contact: Your Libertarian Candidates Phone: (248) 740-0292

    November 7, 2000
    Wayne County LP - Monthly Meeting. Dinner 6:30pm Program 7:45pm. Mostlikely this meeting will be cancelled
    Location: La Trattoria Restaurant Michigan Avenue near Schaffer Dearborn MI
    Contact: Joann Karpinski Phone: (313) 925-6917 E-mail: MOMJOANN@aol.com

    November 7, 2000 - 7:00 PM
    Election Night Party! Watch the returns, eat some hot dogs and chili, warm up after working the polls with good friends and good food! Candidates not in the vicinity, please keep us apprised of your campaign that night at, (248)591-FREE.
    Location: LPM Headquarters 619 E. Nine Mile Road (just east of I-75) Hazel Park
    Contact: Stacy Van Oast Phone: (810) 784-8783 E-mail: stacyvo@eesc.com

    November 8, 2000 - 6:00 PM
    Libertarians of Macomb County monthly meeting. Drinks and dinner at 6:00 PM, business begins at 7:00 PM.
    Location: Miles World Resturant, 17689 Masonic, Fraser, MI 48026, 810-415-4500
    Contact: Diane Barnes Phone: (810) 774-1625 E-mail: dbarnes98@aol.com

    November 8, 2000 - 7:00 PM
    Kalamazoo Libertarian Party general meeting - Note: Held on Wednesday due to elections
    Location: TGI Friday's, 5650 W. Main Street, Oshtemo, MI
    Contact: Tim Miley Phone: (616) 668-3951 E-mail: thmiley@yahoo.com

    November 9, 2000 - 7:00 PM
    The Libertarian Party of West Michigan hosts it's monthly meeting at Brann's. All members and interested individuals are encouraged to attend. Meeting begins at 7:00 pm.
    Location: Brann's on Leonard, Just off of US 131. Meeting takes place in the private meeting room.
    Contact: Derek Hollemans Phone: (616) 262-1008 E-mail: derek@triton.net

    November 11, 2000 - 6:30 PM
    LibertyFest 2000 Featuring the 2000 Defender of Liberty Awards presentation and keynote speaker Jacob Hornberger, emceed by Ghazey Aleck. Cost is $35 before October 23, $45 after the deadline, $50 at the door, Cash bar.
    Location: Miles World Resturant, 17689 Masonic (near Groesbeck), Fraser, MI 48026, Restaurant phone #:810-415-4500. See www.mi.lp.org/libfest/map.htm for directions and a map.
    Contact: Diane Barnes Phone: (810) 774-1625 E-mail: Dbarnes98@aol.com

    More
    For more events, see the online calendar at:
    http://www.michiganlp.org/lpmonline/events.php

  2. Help Pass Out Bilingual Literature in Dearborn by Greg Stempfle


    Help Pass Out Bilingual Literature in Dearborn for Mike Corliss and State Rep candidate Greg Stempfle

    The Dearborn State Rep District in which I am running is roughly 30-40% Arab-American. In fact, this area has the largest number of Arabic people outside of the Mid-East. As a Party, we need to reach out to more minorities and other groups of disenfranchised voters. I have had campaign literature for myself and Mike Corliss for US Senate translated and printed in Arabic. I am the only candidate who has done this so far and I feel it will reflect in the polls.
    Bilingual Brochure

    There are only two weekends left before Election Day and we need your help with literature drops to get our message out. If you or anyone is free either this Saturday or the next, I will be organizing lit drops in certain precincts. If you are tied up on Saturdays, you can help out anytime that is convenient. I would like to start at 10 am, but feel free to stop by anytime during the day. Lunch will be provided.

    I live at 23150 Hollander in Dearborn. 5 blocks south of Ford Road, one block west of Outer Drive or 4 blocks east of Telegraph. Feel free to call (313) 565-4407 if you have any questions.

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  3. The third party that makes sense by Jason C. Miller

    HUDSONVILLE -- Libertarian candidate for state representative Tim Campbell participated in a debate between all four candidates in district 90. District 90, which covers the southern half of Ottawa County, is Michigan's only race with four candidates for state representative.

    Campbell presented a strong message. Republican incumbant Wayne Kuipers kept talking about smaller government, but would not make a strong comment about the issues or what he woul do to reduce government. Campbell filled the gap by suggesting ways to get the government out and allow for a stronger community. The Democratic challenger, John O'Brien, presented an ineffective and mixed message as a conservative Democrat.

    John Den Herder, the Green Party candidate for state rep, was also allowed to participate in the debate. He made no sense and refused to answer most questions. His lack of sense did serious damage to the Green Party and proved that the Libertarian Party is the only third party with a chance.

    The event was sponsored by the Hudsonville High School Student Council and organized by Jason Miller. It's proof that one of the best ways to get your candidate included in the debate is to help set it up yourself. It also attracted meia coverage from the Grand Rapids Press

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  4. Debate exclusion protest in G.R by Jason C. Miller

    GRAND RAPIDS -- Debate organizers for the U.S. Senate race committed a double wrong. They excluded Libertarian Michael Corliss and held the debate on taxpayer funded land. Libertarians from Kent and Ottawa County decided to protest this injustice.

    A total of 13 folks showed up to make it known that there were voices other than Liberal Debbie and Liberal Spence. Two members of the Green Party joined 11 Libertarians in distributing literature and bearing signs. Many of these folks traveled from Holland and deprived themselves of some sleep to defend liberty on this Sunday morning.

    Literature was handed out to about a hundred people as they entered the debate. Many of them were debate organizers, participants (town hall meeting), and members of the media. Even the debate moderators listened to what we had to say. Sadly, Senator Levin and Jenny Granholm declined to accept our literature.

    At the end of the day, this generated an interview from the local Fox affiliate and gave us a chance to express our views. Hundreds of people, many of them influential folks in the media, may remember what we said, but they will remember that there is an alternative to the two party system.

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  5. CMU Political Science Presentation (Debate?) by Ghazey Aleck

    Exciting news! Fresh off a great interview on WDGN promoting the Libertarian Party, I have been invited to present the Libertarian prospective in a presentation with 3 other political parties--the Green, Republican and Democratic. On November 2, 2000 at 3:30pm at 162 Anspach (an auditorium) at CMU, hundreds will hear the only small government message contrasted against 3 pro-big government parties by a trial lawyer hardened with 15 years of experience. Political Science Professor Tom Stewart drove north from CMU nearly 20 miles to invite me to personally present the Libertarian message and I eagerly agreed. I am presently trying to find out if it will be open to the public (he wasn't sure when I talked to him) so stayed tuned next week and if so, there will be an announcement.

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  6. Cutting to the Chase by Cutting out the Pretense by Ronna Abramson

    The Chicago Board of Election Commissioners is planning to file a lawsuit Monday against Voteauction.com, a Web site that enables people to put their presidential votes up for bid, after discovering that 1,131 Illinois residents were participating in that questionable practice.

    The suit will request an injunction to shut down the Web site, which was launched by graduate student James Baumgartner in August 2000 in New York and then purchased by a group of European investors.

    The idea for the site was to capitalize on undecided and disillusioned voters who intended to sit out the November election. Baumgartner also wanted to divert some of the millions of dollars being spent on advertising and consultants to voters. The site offers an auction of votes by state. Bids would start at $100 per state and go up by at least $50. Whoever has the highest bid gets to decide how the entire group of participants from the particular state would vote, and voters would divide the final price equally among themselves.

    "They're violating the law," says Thomas Leach, a spokesman with the election board. "The fact is that they're promoting vote fraud. It's a federal and state felony to buy or sell votes, or to offer to buy or sell votes."

    Hans Bernhard, an Austrian who is one the site's new owners, said he has not yet received official notice from the Chicago agency and could not comment on the suit. But he maintains that the theory behind the site is no different than soft-money contributions raised by political parties.

    Bernhard acknowledges that verifying votes remains a technical and legal problem. Baumgartner, who is working toward an MFA degree at Renssellaer Polytechnical Institute, had envisioned requiring participants to vote by absentee ballot, sending the ballot first to Voteauction to verify that the correct candidate was checked off.

    "This is clearly an offense," acknowledges Bernhard, addressing the question of whether the absentee-voter verification idea was illegal. Bernhard expects his team of 20 people to devise a solution within the next couple of weeks.

    Chicago officials are particularly sensitive to this use of absentee ballots, Leach says. Complaints about absentee ballot tampering arose in the city's aldermanic elections in 1995 and prompted the elections board to regularly survey 5 percent of absentee votes to ensure there is no fraud, according to Leach.

    The Chicago lawsuit is not the first legal run-in for Voteauction. Baumgartner shut down the site in August after a New York City Board of Elections commissioner threatened a crackdown. Then Baumgartner sold the site to a group of four investors from Switzerland, Austria, and German, led by Bernhard, who reports owning a number of small dot-com ventures. The California secretary of state also has sent an e-mail and certified letter to Bernhard notifying him that Voteauction is engaged in criminal activity.

    The site says it has 15,128 people who have put their votes up for bid. The total bid price currently comes to $170,600. California's votes appear to be the most valuable, selling for $19.61 per vote. Votes from Louisiana are the least valuable, selling for $3.57 each.

    After acquiring the site for an undisclosed price, Bernhard relaunched Voteauction last month with new features, including a "voter empowerment kit." The kit lets users download a form letter asking candidates to pay them directly for their vote instead of spending money on advertising. "Since you are spending so much money on this year's election, why not give it straight to the voters instead?" the letter reads. "For a mere $____, you can influence my vote directly and be assured of my support. I look forward to doing business with you," it closes.

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