Overview of the 2012 Boston Tea Party Presidential Convention

Originally published on December 23rd, 2011. Reformatted for publication here.

Boston Tea Party National Convention, 2012
Presidential Nominee	Vice Presidential Nominee
Tiffany Briscoe, MD	Kimberly Brighton Barrick, AZ

1:07 AM EST EDIT: Kimberly Brighton Barrick was selected as the Vice Presidential nominee following a run-off election.

The Boston Tea Party just had it’s 2012 nominating convention this evening.
The Convention was conducted online with a debate done via IRC.
I’ve just finished adding data to the OC encyclopedia, but for anyone interested in splinter groups, the BTP was a group of individuals who broke free from the Libertarian Party in 2006 due in part to the complete revamping of their party bylaws.
The Boston Tea Party’s platform states they “support reducing the size, scope and power of government at all levels and on all issues, and opposes increasing the size, scope and power of government at any level, for any purpose. ”

I have an interview with the group’s “father” and one of their 2008 VP candidates; Thomas Knapp. I’ll get that up sooner then later as it contains a good deal of educational information and is part of my collection on differing philosophies.

Candidates for President include Robert Milnes, Tiffany Briscoe, and Phil Davison of Tosh.0 fame.

Candidates for Vice President include James Ogle, whom is also pursuing the Libertarian Presidential nomination, Kimberly Johnson, and Steven R. Linnabary.

NOTA, or None of the Above, a frequent candidate decision in Libertarian circles, is also included in both races.

Voting is done in a manner similar to Instant Run-off Voting, where you choose the candidates you would most like to see win, and then the election goes to a run-off where the weakest candidate is removed in each round. However, it is different in the sense that if you were to vote for both Briscoe and Davison, each would get a vote, whereas if you would cast a single vote for Davison, only he would get your recorded vote.

At the end of the night, Tiffany Briscoe was declared the victor with 65% of all votes cast. NOTA came in 2nd with 20%, Davison in 3rd with 10%, and Milnes in last with the remaining.

Initially, NOTA defeated everyone, coming in 1st with Ogle in a close 2nd. However, due to a discrepancy, NOTA failed to gain 50%+ in order to gain a majority, and the race is going to a run-off.  James Ogle has decided to focus more on the Libertarian Party and the current run-off shows Kimberly Johnson easily becoming the nominee.

As of last night, Kimberly Brighton Barrick (Johnson) was declared the victor.

It’s unknown what ballot access plans the Boston Tea Party has in the works for 2012, but in the 2008 cycle they achieved access in the states of Florida, Tennessee, and Colorado. In those states, they received a total of 2,422 votes.