$1.25M for ballot access sounds like waste — until you realize the two parties spent $16 billion in 2024 and specifically wrote the laws that make ballot access so expensive.
End The LP points to the $1.25 million projected for 2028 ballot access as "waste." But this criticism only makes sense if you ignore why ballot access costs that much — and who benefits from those costs.
Ballot access laws in America are written by state legislatures dominated by Republicans and Democrats. These laws set requirements — petition signatures, filing fees, early deadlines — that established parties with decades of infrastructure and party registration easily meet. For new or third parties, the same requirements require paid signature gatherers, legal teams, and months of organizing. The cost of ballot access is not natural. It is engineered.
In the 2024 election cycle, the two major parties and their affiliated Super PACs spent approximately $16 billion — that's sixteen billion dollars on campaigns. The LP's $1.25 million ballot access budget represents 0.0078% of that. Calling it "waste" while celebrating the two parties' billion-dollar spending is an extraordinary double standard.
More importantly: the LP's ballot access spending isn't buying attack ads or donor lunches. It's purchasing the legal right for millions of Americans to have an alternative on their ballot. That's democratic infrastructure.
Without ballot access, voters in many states would have zero alternative to the two major parties. In deeply red or blue states, this effectively means one-party elections. Ballot access for third parties is the difference between "you have a choice" and "you don't." Libertarians believe choice matters — even when it's expensive to preserve.
The LP's ballot access spending has built something valuable: established party status in several states, which reduces the cost of future ballot access. Each election cycle builds toward a lower-cost future. Abandoning that investment now doesn't save money — it throws it away.
$1.25 million to preserve democratic choice for millions of American voters is not waste. It's the price of living in a system designed by two parties to eliminate competition. The answer is to reform those laws — which the LP actively fights for — not to surrender and let the rigged system win.
We’ve all heard the critics, the pundits, and the defenders of the status quo point their fingers and laugh at third-party vote totals.…
When critics say the Libertarian Party has "never won a federal race," they ignore the rigged rules that make winning nearly impossible for any third party.
Chase Oliver received 650,000+ votes in 2024 with no debate access, rigged ballot access, and media silence. That number would be millions in a fair system.
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