The Libertarian Party and its Colorado affiliate are poised to submit competing presidential tickets for the state’s ballot in November as quarreling among party officials turns into an unprecedented tug-of-war over who gets to pick a party’s candidate.

The dispute pits Colorado party officials, who announced last week that they would swap out the Libertarian-nominated ticket for controversial independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., against the national party. The national side has already filed most of the paperwork needed to put the presidential and vice presidential candidates — selected at the party’s national convention in May — on the ballot here. Their state counterparts say they still plan to do the same for Kennedy and his running mate.

It’s unclear what will happen if both sides submit completed paperwork for a Libertarian slate by the Sept. 6 deadline. Jack Todd, a spokesman for the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office, said the office has never had different levels of the same political party competing over different presidential tickets, and he was unaware of any other such instance in the country.

Todd said in a statement that applicable state law “is silent on intra-party conflicts regarding candidate nominations,” meaning that the dispute may have to be resolved in court.

“A single party may not place multiple candidates for president and vice president onto the Colorado ballot,” he said. “The (Secretary of State’s Office) will accept complete paperwork from a branch of the Libertarian Party when it is submitted.”

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The struggle erupted over the past week, after the Libertarian Party of Colorado announced that it was snubbing the party’s officially nominated candidates, Chase Oliver for president and Mike ter Maat for vice president. Instead its leaders are backing Kennedy and his running mate, Nicole Shanahan.

Party officials have said that Kennedy, a former Democrat,has moved closer toward Libertarian positions and that his place on the ballot will help advance the party’s interests and candidates.

Kennedy, whose campaign did not return a message seeking comment this week, has partnered with and founded new, smaller parties elsewhere in the U.S. to gain ballot access. He is a member of the dynastic political family, which largely has viewed the candidacy of its anti-vaccine relative with deep skepticism — even as he has picked up support in national polls, garnering 10% or more in some surveys.

In response to the state party embracing Kennedy, the national secretary of the Libertarian Party, Caryn Ann Harlos, and the Oliver campaign filed their own paperwork with the Secretary of State’s Office to formally register the Libertarian candidates in Colorado. Harlos and Oliver separately confirmed to The Denver Post on Tuesday that the paperwork had been filed. (Todd, the state spokesman, said the paperwork was still incomplete and needed a list of appointed electors.)

Reached by phone Tuesday, Oliver said he wasn’t sure of the details surrounding the fight in Colorado, though he reiterated that he had been officially nominated by the party and that he expected to be on the Colorado ballot come November.

A message sent to the national Libertarian Party was not returned Tuesday.

Harlos, who stressed she couldn’t speak for the party, said Goodman and other local officials were violating state and national party bylaws by replacing Oliver with Kennedy. She castigated Colorado Libertarians’ embrace of Kennedy, who received only marginal support at the party’s national convention, as “craven opportunism” in pursuit of funding and attention.

“The national nomination is determined at our national convention,” said Harlos, who’s based in Colorado and served on one of the local party’s committees before her recent resignation. “Just like the Democrats and the Republicans. And as an affiliate, the Libertarian Party of Colorado is required to follow those.”

She added: “And RFK Jr. is not a Libertarian, and we only put Libertarians on our ballot line. Sometimes, they’re not perfect, but at least they’re Libertarians.”

Neither the Kennedy campaign nor the state party had yet filed the paperwork to place Kennedy on the ballot as the Libertarian candidate. But they still planned to do so, state party chair Hannah Goodman said Tuesday.

Goodman wrote in a text message that the “state party owns their ballot line” and that the problem would be sorted out with state officials before the Sept. 6 deadline. She declined to comment further and directed questions to a spokesman.

Before reaching his deal with Colorado libertarians, Kennedy was gathering signatures to appear on the ballot here as an independent. He could still do that, though time is running short: The deadline to submit those signatures is Thursday.

The Libertarian Party ranks third in affiliations in Colorado behind the Democratic and Republican parties — counting 45,462 as of last month, or just over 1% of registered voters. That total has declined by nearly 6% since May 2021, when The Post reported a story on the 50th anniversary of the national party’s founding in Colorado.

In a Monday night meeting of the state party, members took turns criticizing and defending the decision to bump Oliver for Kennedy, according to a video reviewed by The Post. One member said the move “violates the will of the party,” and another said the decision would destroy the party.

Harlos warned that it put the party on a “very, very, very dangerous path” with election laws.

But supporters said Kennedy would bring attention and resources to a party that one characterized as a political entity “teetering on the edge of irrelevancy and uselessness.” One El Paso County libertarian quipped that she was struck by “the unbelievable amount of nothing happening” in the party.

“I think the principle (of the party) is extremely important,” added Jacob Luria, the Colorado party’s campaign director. “But I also know that resources and support and other things are very important as well.”

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Originally Published: July 10, 2024 at 11:39 a.m.