- 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
- 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.
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.
Back to Contents
- 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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- 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.
Back to Contents
- 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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- 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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