Welcome to the Libertarian Party of Delaware home page, representing the Libertarian Party in Delaware.


Please follow the links to the right for additional information or scroll down for news and updates. If you want to get more involved, in particular please check out our onboarding page.


More Information

We are very active on social media. Please make sure you're following our Twitter and Facebook feeds for announcements, info, and content to share with your network. Also please join our Discord Server to begin connecting immediately with other local Libertarians. You can also find contact information for your local county affiliate officers and representatives on our Staff and Meetings page or get more information about your county affiliate on their respective web pages:



News & Updates

LPD Store

We have created an LPD Store through CafePress. You can buy LPD branded items and a contribution will be made to the party with each purchase.

May 2018 Meetings

The monthly meetings are listed generally on the Staff and Meetings page of the site, but the specific dates for May 2018 are as follows:

We hope to see you there!

NOTICE: AoA Committee Report (April 25, 2018)

The following proposed amendments to the Bylaws and Articles of Association have been released by the State Board Articles of Association Committee with their unanimous endorsement. This post constitutes notice as required under Article X of the Articles of Association for any amendments to be adopted. The State Board may vote on them any time after May 25, 2018.

In addition to the amendments herein proposed, the State Board will also be asked to formally adopt the revised Articles of Association passed at the 2018 Annual Convention as they have been transcribed to the LPD website. No substantive changes were made during this transcription from those adopted at the convention, only minor modifications have been made to the formatting as necessary to display them on an HTML web page and facilitate easy reading. Adopting them directly as published here is a formality intended to ensure the exact published text is properly adopted in accordance with both the old and new Articles, and that the publicly published Articles can be relied upon by the membership to govern the party.

Please feel free to submit your comments on the proposed amendments below, or discuss them with your State Board representatives.

1. MEMBERSHIP

Amend Article VI:

Any person who is currently registered to vote in Delaware as a Libertarian and agrees to abide by the terms of these articles is a member of the LPD.

The previous AoA required members to agree to abide by the AoA. This provision was inadvertently left out of the revision and may prove critical to preventing a hostile takeover of the LPD by registered Libertarians who do not choose to abide by the rules and traditions of the party and break its continuity of leadership, jeopardizing our status as the “regularly organized and constituted governing authority of the party”.

2. NOTICE

Amend Article IX:

  1. Posting on the LPD Facebook page
  2. Posting to the LPD Facebook group
    3.
  3. Posting on the LPD webpage

Most people will not have the ability to post from the LPD Facebook page, to the webpage, or to the collected email list. Facebook notification settings also allow members to receive notifications when something is posted to the group. While it is unlikely many amendments or other processes requiring notice will be initiated without the cooperation of those who do have permission, allowing use of the FB group to constitute notice opens these processes up to the general membership.

3. DISCIPLINARY ACTION

Amend Bylaw 4:

To remain in effect any Any such sanction must may be reviewed and confirmed appealed at the next State Convention and overturned by a majority of the members present at the Convention with an up or down vote.

Conventions should not generally become forums for second guessing the disciplinary decisions of the State Board, particularly since State Board sanctions against members at large will be exceptionally rare and only used when a member has become exceptionally disruptive and/or detrimental to the party’s interests. A requirement to devote convention time to relitigating these issues would only serve to further damage the party’s reputation. If an offending member cannot find an advocate to appeal their case at the convention, we should not have to devote time to them. If they cannot convince members to overturn their sanctions on their own time, we should not overturn them.

4. CONVENTION VOTES

Amend Bylaw 3.D:

Voting for candidates, delegates, and officers of the executive committee will be by secret ballot. Uncontested elections may be conducted by voice vote with “nay” votes indicating a vote for None of the Above.

Amend Article VIII:

Delegates to the national convention shall be elected by each member writing their slate of desired delegates on a secret ballot and with the delegates receiving the most votes being selected. Uncontested delegate elections need not be conducted by secret ballot.

Conducting secret ballot elections for these positions when the elections are uncontested is unnecessarily time consuming, and the chair should have the discretion to conduct the elections by voice vote, with a majority voting “nay” indicating the selection of “None of the Above”. This is traditionally how uncontested elections have been managed and conforms to the process outlined in Article VI of the old AoA.

5. CREDENTIALING

Amend Article VII:

They shall be responsible for certifying that all voting members of the convention meet the criteria outlined in the Articles of Association for membership in the Libertarian Party of Delaware and reporting the names and numbers to the convention members for approval by a quorum of the State Board.

Reporting the names and numbers to the entire convention for the entire convention to approve creates a circular authority. If the members themselves are not yet credentialed, they are not qualified to approve credentialing. A quorum of the State Board can be presumed to be qualified and present at the convention.

6. MAJORITY VOTE

Amend Article IV:

Unless stated otherwise a simple majority of members voting will be required to pass measures before the State Board.

This change clarifies that an abstention or a non-vote/absence is not equivalent to a “no”. A quorum of 40% is still required, and a majority of those present and voting must approve.

7. ONLINE VOTES

Append Bylaw 6:

By-Law 6: Online State Board Meetings

Any votes conducted online shall remain open for 48 hours unless a sufficient number of votes has been recorded to determine the result of the vote as if the entire State Board had responded, in which case the Chair may direct the Secretary to record remaining votes at their discretion. After 48 hours, votes shall be ruled on based on the quorum of members who have responded.

Online votes shouldn’t stay open forever waiting for stragglers to respond. After 48 hours, if a quorum of members has responded, the measure should be ruled on. If enough members record their votes prior to the expiration of the 48 hours, the measure may be ruled on immediately but the Chair may direct the Secretary to record the remaining votes anyway for accountability, informational, and protest purposes.

8. DEMOCRATIC

Amend Article II:

The Republican and Democratic parties dominate the exercise of electoral politics in the United States.

Proper name, not Rush Limbaugh’s pejorative.

Everett Meredith Middle School PTA Vendor Fair

The NCCLP will have a spot at the Everett Meredith Middle School PTA Vendor Fair on May 5th, from 9am to 4pm at E.M. Middle School, 504 S. Broad St., Middletown, DE 19709. If you would like to help out, please e-mail the New Castle County Party. We could really use your help at our booth! Thanks again for all you do for the NCCLP and for liberty!

NCCLP Gong Karaoke Fundraiser

  • Gong Karaoke Fundraiser for the New Castle County Libertarian Party (NCCLP)!
  • To be held at "On the Rocks" in Newark on Saturday, April 28th from 6pm-10pm.
  • What is "Gong Karaoke"? It's when the Gong Show meets karaoke! 
  • $5 entrance fee, $1 per song.
  • If you don't like someone's singing, put in one dollar and stop them! They have to match your dollar with another dollar from their own pocket!
  • Really don't like someone's singing? You can't put in more than a dollar to stop someone, but you can get your friends to put in their dollars with yours. Whatever the amount is, the singer MUST match it to continue to sing!
  • Come out, have fun, and support the New Castle County Libertarian Party. You'll be glad you did!
On the Rocks

Happy 4/20

It will come as a surprise to no one that the Libertarian Party supports an end to the War on Drugs, and especially the War on Cannabis.  The Libertarian Party of Delaware's State Board has passed a resolution in support of HB110 to further this aim.

HB110 is far from perfect.  It does not allow for homegrown cannabis.  The regulatory structure and imposed taxes are exorbitant.  It is, however, a step in the right direction that will put an end to the suffering of countless individuals who are hurting no one, yet still being introduced to the criminal justice system in a way that is harmful to them, their families, and the state as a whole.

Once the blanket prohibition on the possession of cannabis has been lifted, when the sky fails to fall upon the State of Delaware, we hope that additional legislation can be passed to further liberate the cannabis market and Delaware in general.

Gun Control Legislation

The following bills are in or have passed the General Assembly regarding gun control.  Please leave a note in the comments if I've missed any or mischaracterized anything:

The Libertarian Party generally and the Libertarian Party of Delaware in particular opposes most Gun Control measures as "collective punishment" of peaceful, non-aggressive, and otherwise law abiding individuals.  It creates a new category of "victimless crimes" for the possession of an item which is primarily used for self-defense, hunting, and recreational shooting.

To my mind, the legislation increasing the penalties for Straw Purchases and the legislation particularly targeted at establishing a due process for removing firearms from those deemed by a mental health professional as a danger to themselves or others are reasonable.  Stiffer penalties for failing to adequately secure your firearms such that they are taken by unauthorized persons is reasonable.  The legislation ensuring that the background check system is accurate is probably not particularly effective at preventing gun violence, but nor is it destructive to an individual's right to self defense.

The other legislation is exactly as it was described earlier.  It is collective punishment.  Bump stocks, high capacity magazines, so called "assault rifles" functionally indistinguishable from other weapons, and restrictions on adults under the age of 21 create criminals out of peaceful, responsible, non-aggressive, and otherwise law-abiding individuals and should be opposed.  Criminals will not respect these laws.  Everyone else will find their choices restricted and their peaceful behavior criminalized, potentially at the cost of their lives if not just at the cost of their freedom.

Please contact your legislators using the contact information linked to the right and let them know how you feel about these bills.  It is too late for HB174, but all the rest of them are still in the General Assembly.

Re-Launch

We had been attempting to develop a custom website.  It left a lot to be desired.  We are reverting to a Blogger based website.  Development of this site is ongoing.

Please stand by and check back often as we implement additional pages and features.  Please follow us on Facebook in the meantime for up-to-date news, events, and info.