The LPO had planned to hold a special convention on April 11. Unfortunately, due to health concerns related to the global spread of COVID-19, and the Governor’s executive order prohibiting large gatherings of people, the Board of Directors has decided to cancel the special convention.
Among the business planned for the convention were important amendments to our party bylaws that would have helped us reduce costs in future elections.
Our largest expense is printing and mailing materials to our members. Donations are badly needed. In 2018, the LPO Board of Directors made the difficult decision to send ballots to only a subset of registered Libertarian voters in Oregon, as permitted in our bylaws. Why? Because we receive no taxpayer funding, and funds raised for the primary election mailing were insufficient to send ballots to all 19,000 registered Libertarians. We are in a similar financial position this year; please help us to send ballots to every registered Libertarian voter in Oregon! We need to raise about $15,000 — less than one dollar per member.
Donations to the LPO qualify for the Oregon Political Tax Credit (ORS 316.102), so up to $100 (joint tax returns) or $50 (single tax returns) of political donations can be credited against your income taxes, making the donation free to you (subject to income limits). If just 5% of our members take advantage of this tax credit, we would more than meet our fund raising needs.
Finally, if you are interested in being an Oregon delegate to the Libertarian National Convention this year, please contact Carolyn Wade at carolyn.wade@lporegon.org to inquire.
Thank you for reading our message, and please donate to help us afford our primary election!