Rules of the Ulster County Libertarian Party Committee
As amended at the Organization Meeting of the County Committee held on February 27, 2021.
Article 1: Organization
1.1. NAME. The name of this organization shall be the Libertarian Party of Ulster County.
1.1.2. Other acceptable usages and abbreviations are Ulster County Libertarian Party, Ulster County NY Libertarian Party, and UCLP.
1.1.3. For the purposes of conducting business of a financial nature, the designation Ulster County Libertarian Party Committee shall be used.
1.2. The Ulster County Libertarian Party Committee is a County Affiliate of the Libertarian Party of New York and shall pursue becoming and maintaining a constituted County Committee as defined in election law. Until such time, or if status is lost, the Ulster County Libertarian Party Committee shall function as a County Organization as defined in the Rules of the Libertarian Party of New York and shall exercise all of the powers of a constituted County Committee as set forth herein and not prohibited by applicable law.
1.3. JURISDICTION. The jurisdiction of the Ulster County Libertarian Party Committee shall be Ulster County in the State of New York.
1.4. PURPOSE. The Ulster County Libertarian Party Committee is organized for the purpose of supporting and electing candidates nominated by the Libertarian Party to public office, and engaging in political action for the promotion of principles and policies of the Libertarian Party.
Article 2. Membership
Members shall consist of individuals who are registered or pre-registered to vote in Ulster County and are enrolled in the Libertarian Party. Pre-registered members are entitled to the same rights of any registered member except as prohibited by law.
Article 3: County Committee
3.1. AUTHORITY. The County Committee shall be the highest governing body of the Ulster County Libertarian Party Committee in the State of New York. It shall have full authority to set policies and goals for the Ulster County Libertarian Party Committee, establish committees, raise and allocate financial resources, and hire staff consistent with the Rules of the Libertarian Party of New York and applicable law.
3.2. COMPOSITION. Each election district within the county is entitled to have two representatives on the County Committee, who shall reside in the county and assembly district containing the election district that they represent. In addition to the members elected as aforesaid, the Chair, Vice-Chair, Secretary, and Treasurer of the County Committee shall be voting members of that committee, by virtue of their office, in the event that one or more of the aforesaid officers would not otherwise be a member of the County Committee.
3.3. ELECTIONS
3.3.1. BY PRIMARY. Members of the County Committee shall be elected by enrolled Libertarians at the primary elections in even numbered years held pursuant to election law.
3.3.2. ELECTION OTHER THAN PRIMARY.
3.3.2.1. If the members of the party fail to elect enough delegates at a primary election to form a constituted County Committee per Election Law, an organization meeting shall be held and all members in attendance shall fill vacancies of the election district delegates as the first order of business following the call to order. Election district delegates elected at the primary shall automatically be seated as members of the County Committee in their respective election district.
3.3.2.2. No member will be permitted to vote subsequent to filling of the vacancies, until they have been elected or appointed as an election district delegate as herein provided.
3.4. OFFICERS.
3.4.1. TITLES. The County Committee shall elect a Chair, a Vice-Chair, a Secretary, and a Treasurer at their Organization Meeting. All officers must be enrolled members of the Libertarian Party and reside within Ulster County. Such officers shall be considered ex-officio members of the County Committee.
3.4.2. DUTIES.
3.4.2.1. CHAIR. The Chair shall preside at all meetings of the County Committee. The Chair shall perform such duties as usually pertain to the office of Chair and shall perform such other duties as are assigned to the Chair by the County Committee. The Chair is responsible for ensuring that all required paperwork necessary for the facilitation of the business of the party is filed with the County Board of Elections, including, but not limited to, the filing of the party calls in order to conduct a primary.
3.4.2.2. VICE-CHAIR. The Vice-Chair shall act as assistant to the Chair. The Vice-Chair shall preside in the absence of the Chair and shall assume all the duties of the Chair in the event the Chair is unable to execute the duties of the Chair.
3.4.2.3. SECRETARY. The Secretary shall keep an accurate and complete record of the proceedings of all meetings of the County Committee and shall keep these records up-to-date and in order in the master book containing the official minutes of the Libertarian Party. At meetings of the County Committee and the Executive Committee, the Secretary shall present the minutes of the previous respective meeting for approval. In all elections and roll call votes, the Secretary shall call the roll of the voting members and shall keep an accurate tally of such votes. The Secretary with unanimous consent may dispense with a roll call vote. The Secretary may appoint assistants for this purpose and, in contested elections, with the consent of a majority of the members of the County Committee present and voting shall appoint an Elections Board which shall include one representative of each contestant in question plus one additional member, so that the Board shall consist of an odd number of persons.
3.4.2.4. TREASURER. The Treasurer, or the Treasurer's designated agent, shall receive and give receipts for all monies paid to the county party and shall deposit the same in such bank or banks as shall have been designated by the County Committee. The Treasurer shall present a written report at each meeting of the County Committee or at any other time when so requested by the County Committee. The Treasurer shall, at the discretion of the County Committee, present the financial records of the Libertarian Party for audit by such auditor(s) as the County Committee shall specify. Expenditures of funds shall be made only in accordance with regulations established by the County Committee and as allowed by applicable law. The Treasurer shall be responsible for regulatory filings of a financial nature.
3.5. VACANCIES. If a vacancy occurs on the Executive Committee or the County Committee, the position shall be filled in accordance with this section. Vacancies occur by death, resignation, removal, relocation out of state, or change of party enrollment to a choice other than Libertarian.
3.5.1. CHAIR. Should a vacancy exist in the office of Chair, the Vice-Chair shall serve as Acting Chair until the election of a new Chair at the next meeting of the full County Committee.
3.5.2. OTHER OFFICERS. Should a vacancy exist in the office of Vice-Chair, Secretary, or Treasurer, the Executive Committee shall fill the vacancy, subject to ratification by a vote of the full County Committee. The individual selected shall serve for the remainder of the term of the office vacated. If the ratification fails, the County Committee shall fill the vacancy.
3.5.3. ELECTION DISTRICT DELEGATES. Should a vacancy exist in an election district on the County Committee, the position shall be vacant until filled by a majority vote of the full County Committee.
3.6. TERM. All County Committee members shall serve until the conclusion of the Organization Meeting following the next primary election in an even numbered year.
3.6.1. OFFICER TERMS. Officer terms expire upon the conclusion of the next Organization Meeting held following the Organization Meeting in which they were elected.
3.7. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. The County Committee may authorize an Executive Committee to carry on the duties and exercise the powers of the County Committee when it is not in session or stands in recess, except powers reserved herein exclusively for the full County Committee. The Executive Committee shall be composed of the Chair, Vice-Chair, Secretary, Treasurer of the County Committee and the Members-At-Large, as herein provided. Such authorization shall expire at the start of the succeeding meeting of the County Committee. Quorum at meetings of the Executive Committee shall consist of two-thirds (2/3) of its members.
3.7.1. MEMBERS-AT-LARGE. Members-At-Large of the Executive Committee are to be elected at the Organization Meeting, or at any meeting of the full County Committee held thereafter if there are vacancies or when the allowed number of Members-At-Large increases. Members-At-Large shall serve until the next Organization Meeting after their election. One (1) Member-At-Large will be elected for every five (5) election district delegates on the County Committee with a maximum of five (5) Members-At-Large of the Executive Committee.
Article 4. Meetings.
4.1. ORGANIZATION MEETING. After the State Committee has recognized the Ulster County Libertarian Party Committee as a County Affiliate, an Organization Meeting must be held biennially in even number years as required by election law for the purpose of holding officer elections. If no time frame is specified by election law, the meeting must be held between September 17 and October 6.
4.1.1. VOTING MEMBERS. The County Committee elected pursuant to Article 3 shall be the voting members.
4.1.2. VACANCIES. If vacancies exist for election district delegates on the County Committee upon the start of the Organization Meeting, consideration of interested members to fill the vacancies must occur before the election of officers.
4.1.3. NOTIFICATION. Notice of the Organization Meeting shall be given to the members no later than thirty (30) calendar days prior to the meeting.
4.2. OTHER MEETINGS. Other meetings of the County Committee or Executive Committee shall be held at such times and places as the County Committee or Executive Committee may decide.
4.2.1. There will be at least one (1) meeting of the County Committee held in each quarter of the year. In even numbered years, the organization meeting shall satisfy the requirement for the quarter in which it is held.
4.3. CALLING OF MEETINGS. Meetings of the County Committee may be called by one of the following:
4.3.1. The Chair.
4.3.2. Majority vote of the Executive Committee/Officers.
4.3.3. A request in writing signed by one third (1/3) of the County Committee members, given to the Chair or Secretary. The request may be in email form, sent to the originator, the Chair, and the Secretary, indicating support of the call for a meeting.
4.4.4. NOTIFICATION.
4.4.4.1. Five calendar days notice shall be given. A waiver of notice whether signed before or after a meeting, or attendance without protesting a lack of notice, shall preclude any objection on this ground.
4.4.4.2. Email notice will be sufficient if sent to the email address provided to the Secretary for this purpose. If consent is given, notice by telephone only may be given in-person and cannot be given by leaving a message. Alternatively, notice given by a text message will be sufficient if acknowledged as having been received.
4.4.4.3. When notice is given, and documents need to be transmitted with the notice, such documents can be made available online, in any fashion agreed to, for those members who agreed to receive notices by email, text, or telephone.
4.4.4.4. If anyone would prefer to receive such notices via the U.S. mail, they must inform the Chair and provide a self-addressed stamped envelope for each notice.
4.4.4.5. The time and place for all meetings of the Ulster County Libertarian Party Committee shall also be publicized in such manner as to assure timely notice to all interested parties. This notice shall be provided by the Chair or the Chair’s designee.
4.5. PRESIDING OFFICER. The County Chair, or in his absence, the Vice-Chair will preside at all meetings of the County Committee and Executive Committee. At the organization meeting of the County Committee, the Chair of the outgoing County Committee, or in his absence the Vice-Chair thereof, shall preside until the Chair of the new County Committee is elected.
4.6. QUORUMS. A quorum shall consist of twenty-five percent (25%) of the full County Committee or five (5) members thereof present in-person or by electronic means, whichever is fewer, as long as at least half of the officers of the County Committee are present; or a majority of the entire County Committee if fewer than half of the officers are present.
4.7. MAJORITY VOTE. Unless specified elsewhere in these Rules, a majority of votes cast by duly qualified members of the County Committee shall be sufficient to decide the outcome of any issue presented for a vote or of any election.
4.8. PROXIES. No proxy votes shall be allowed at any time or in any committee and are invalid on every issue.
4.9. TRANSPARENCY. All meetings of the County Committee shall be open to observation by all enrolled members of the Libertarian Party, limited only by the need for orderly meetings. Any such member who expresses interest must be informed of meetings held by telephone or other electronic means.
4.10. MEETINGS HELD BY ELECTRONIC MEANS. Meetings of the County Committee and Executive Committee may be held by electronic means. Additionally, at any in-person meeting, voting members may participate by electronic means if technological capabilities allow.
Article 5: Removal of Committee Members
5.1. GENERAL PROVISIONS. A member of the County Committee and/or Executive Committee may be removed by the full County Committee, for disloyalty to the party, corruption in office, or enrollment in another party, after notice and hearing upon written charges to be heard by the Executive Committee. The Executive Committee may hear such charges or it may appoint a subcommittee to hear them. If the Executive Committee deems that the charges have been sustained, it shall act thereon or report its findings to the County Committee which shall act thereon.
5.2. ABANDONMENT OF POSITION. Any member of the Executive Committee who has previously failed to attend or participate in properly called business meetings for a period of six (6) months and has evinced no other Rules of the Libertarian Party intent to continue in office may be removed following a hearing by the County Committee for having abandoned the position; for this vote, the member or members in question need not be counted for quorum purposes.
5.3. PROCEDURE.
5.3.1. HEARING. With a majority vote, the County Committee may approve a hearing to consider removing an officer or election district delegate. The hearing shall be scheduled no sooner than ten (10) days after the approval of the hearing.
5.3.2. PRESIDING OFFICER. If the party so charged is the Chair, the Vice-Chair shall preside over the vote to hold the hearing as well as the hearing itself.
5.3.3. VOTE FOR REMOVAL. Immediately following a hearing as approved in Article 5.2.1, a two-thirds (2/3) vote is required to remove an officer or election district delegate. The subject of the hearing shall not participate in the vote nor count toward quorum.
5.3.4. APPEAL. An individual removed from office may appeal to the State Committee. Such appeal may be granted upon the discretion of the State Committee or its Judicial Committee. The decision of the State Committee shall be binding upon the County Committee.
Article 6. Committees
6.1. GENERAL. The County Committee and Executive Committee may create standing or special committees and appoint their members and chair, as it sees fit. The chair of each standing committee shall serve until the end of the first Executive Committee meeting following the next organization meeting, or until their resignation, removal, or reappointment as chair.
Article 7. Candidates for Public Office
7.1. The full County Committee shall make the designation, nomination, authorization, and endorsement of all Libertarian candidates for public office pursuant to these Rules, the Rules of the Libertarian Party of New York, and election law.
7.2. DOCUMENTS. Documents pertaining to the designation, nomination, authorization, and endorsement of candidates for public office that are required to be filed with the State Board of Elections must be submitted by the State Committee upon recommendation by one or more County Committees; the County Committee does not have the authority to submit or sign such documents unless as required by election law.
7.3. VACANCIES. The County Committee may fill vacancies occurring before or after primaries or for special elections, and may decide tie votes in a primary. In doing so, the County Committee must act in accordance with these Rules, those of the Libertarian Party of New York, and Election Law.
7.4. DEFERENCE TO SUBCOMMITTEES. The full county committee, whether directly or by enabling resolution, may appoint a subcommittee or local committee to advise and make recommendations to the full county committee with respect to the making of designations, nominations, authorizations, or endorsements referenced in 7.1.
Article 8. Local Committees
8.1. RECOGNITION. The County Committee may recognize any Local Committee within any municipality within Ulster County which meets all of the requirements stated in this article. For purposes of these rules, a municipality is considered any subdivision within a county that contains a local government for that subdivision. No more than one Local Committee may be recognized in any one municipality. The County Committee may revoke the recognition of any Local Committee if and only if it fails to live up to its requirements under these Rules.
8.2. CONTACT PERSON. The County Committee may appoint a member residing in a municipality as a contact person to form a Local Committee.
8.3. REQUIREMENTS FOR RECOGNITION. A Local Committee may be recognized if four (4) or more County Committee members residing in a single municipality meet and elect a Chair, Vice-Chair, Secretary, and Treasurer to serve one (1) year terms and are elected at a meeting held annually.
8.4. FINANCES. A Local Committee may raise funds and have a bank account.
8.5. ENDORSEMENTS. A Local Committee may endorse any candidate for public office whose precinct is entirely within the municipality as long as it follows the County Rules.
Article 9. Loans
No loans may be made by the Libertarian Party to any member of the County Committee or to any officer thereof.
Article 10. Parliamentary Authority
The latest edition of Robert’s Rules of Order shall govern all meetings of the County Committee and Executive Committee in so far as they are applicable and not inconsistent with these rules.
Article 11. Amendments.
These rules shall continue to be the rules for this organization until they are amended or new rules adopted by a successor County Committee. These rules may be amended from time to time by a majority vote of the members of the full County Committee present at a meeting at which there is a quorum, provided that a copy of the proposed amendment shall be sent with the notice of the meeting at which such amendment is proposed, such notice to be given not less than twenty (20) days before such meeting.
Article 12. Exclusivity
12.1. These rules shall be the exclusive rules of the Ulster County Libertarian Party Committee.
12.2. These rules supersede and replace any document previously filed by the Party, and shall remain in effect until such time that the Ulster County Libertarian Party Committee adopts new or amended Rules and files such Rules with the Ulster County Board of Elections. No other rules shall be effective unless approved in writing by the County Committee.
Article 13. Severability
Any provision of these rules that is adjudged to be invalid or otherwise rendered inoperative by a court or competent jurisdiction shall not affect the validity of any other provision of these rules.