We are here. The youtube broadcast hid itself. The Judicial Committee election results were announced: Avens O’Brien and Ken Moellman were elected to the Judicial Committee; they each had a majority of the vote. The next five nominees are Jake Porter, Roger Roots, Stephan Kinsella, Michael Seebeck, and Ken Krawchuk, but they did not receive a majority of the vote. The Judicial Committee will fill its own membership.
Nominations for Chair have occurred. The first nominee told people not to vote for him. The second nominee was Robert Yates. He gives a sound list of things needed to get us a successful party. The next nominee is Jeremy Kauffman. He is nominated by his wife Rachel. Says LP has been losing for 55 years. I am here to cleanse the party of you losers. Claims his strategy works. Denounces his opponents. His speech is the opposite of being polite to people. I will get the LP out of the way to the best of my ability. Next nominee is Wes Benedict. Nominators are Geoff Neale (ex-National Chair), Ted Brown (Texas US Senate candidate), and Ryan Woodcraft (elected Libertarian). Wes speaks. Next nominee is Jim Ostrowski. He has been a successful libertarian litigator. Last nominator: Evan McMahon. Nominators: Lauri Schilling (IN SoS candidate) Brings a huge number of people to the stage, each carrying a sign. Promises 66,000 members by 2028.
Chair moves to decredential Andrew Allgood, who allegedly slapped a woman out in the hall. Motion passes. Debate was not permitted. Voting leads of a break in business. Speaker: Mr. Lane is an elected Libertarian District Attorney in Iowa. He is now running for US Senate. He introduces the next keynote speaker.
Vote for Chair
Ostrowski – 195
McMahon – 187
Benedict – 125
Yates – 42
Kauffman – 31
Stephen Phillips – 5
Writeins -2
NOTA – 5
Motion to restrict Round 2 to the top 3 candidates; it passes. They are counting the votes.
News note from elsewhere: Doug Hertzsch writes: Region 3 had its regional caucus yesterday evening. Region 3 is no longer North and South. It is one region comprised of Ohio, Indiana, and Missouri as before, but it now includes Louisiana and Iowa. Dustin Coffel was reelected as our Region 3 Representative, and yours truly Greg Hertzsch was reelected as our Region 3 Alternate. Thank you everyone in our region for your vote of continued confidence in me.
2PM: They are returning. Called to order at 2 PM. 615 delegates and 15 alternates. Kauffman uses point of personal privilege to insult McMahon. After parliamentary noise, Kauffman is not ejected. A non-delegate was ejected. There is an issue with the ballot counts, being resolved with recounts. There is an anti-IALP resolution on the floor, resolution being from Scott Horton. 3:40 Still trying to count ballots. Chair reminds members that they have the hall until midnight.
While we are waiting, there is a Vice Chair debate. There are seven candidates. They debated. We are reaching the vote totals.
Evan McMahon was elected as National Chair. I did not see the vote totals. We will now advance to nominations for Vice Chair. Nominations were waived, as they had already debated. There is a vote. While it is ongoing, we hear tributes to Libertarians have passed on and Awards to several Party members.
There are too many people running for Chair. Just like the D’s running for US Senate in California, the anti-Mises side should have coalesced around one or two strong candidates so as not to potentially dilute the vote.
The vote counting scheme does not work that way. A plurality does not elect. A majority is needed. Candidates are eliminated one at a time (or sometimes more)and a new ballot is taken.