2026 Bylaws Committee Draft Report
- Thread starter Paul Darr
- Start date
Jessi Cowart
Vice Chair
Thank you for sharing this @Paul Darr. I am tagging in @Anastasia Wilford because I know she serves on this committee with you.
I guess my main concern is around the February 2028 National Convention, and the fact that that will be occurring prior to our 2028 State Convention which is normally in April per the Texas Election Code. At present, our bylaws state that SLEC would elect national convention delegates if not elected at state convention, but it was my understanding that the Bylaws Committee intended to come up with an alternate proposal that would not put delegate election solely in SLEC's hands.
Did Bylaws Committee decide not to take up this issue? If so, can you share the reasoning for this?
I guess my main concern is around the February 2028 National Convention, and the fact that that will be occurring prior to our 2028 State Convention which is normally in April per the Texas Election Code. At present, our bylaws state that SLEC would elect national convention delegates if not elected at state convention, but it was my understanding that the Bylaws Committee intended to come up with an alternate proposal that would not put delegate election solely in SLEC's hands.
Did Bylaws Committee decide not to take up this issue? If so, can you share the reasoning for this?
Anastasia Wilford
SLEC Member
I don't know where that understanding came from, because I don't remember that being brought up in any official capacity. However, if it was considered informally at one of our working meetings, it could've just been one that I missed. What I do know is that when the committee elected 3 new members back in July 2025, we went back and reviewed all of the proposals previously passed by the committee and all other proposals that any member marked as "ready" and voted on them with our new composition, and among those it just wasn't brought up by anyone.
I've reviewed the committee's Scratchpad (the place we threw ideas to workshop them, much like how the Policy Committee worked through ideas) and didn't find a proposal about national delegate selection in the case that the national convention happens before the state convention (even going through the version history).
While the committee has issued our preliminary report, we are still free to consider other proposals, so if there's something you (or anyone) would like taken up, I would recommend emailing bylaws@lptexas.org with your proposal, particularly by March 14, 2026 as that is the deadline we set for submitting proposals to the committee per LPTexas Bylaws.
Paul Darr
SLEC Member
I had a Proposal for the Committee for conducting a special delegate selection convention. It did not have wide support in the committee.
The text of the proposal was:
V.d.10.iv Delegate Nominating Conventions
A. If the national Libertarian Party Convention is scheduled to take place earlier than the Party's Annual Convention for that same year, the SLEC shall call a Delegate Nominating Convention for the sole purpose of electing national Convention Delegates and Alternates no later than thirty (30) days prior to the date of the national Convention. No other business may be heard at this Special Delegation Nominating Convention.
B. The delegate and alternate allocations to the Delegate Nominating Convention shall use the same allocations from the immediate previous State Convention for each county and the same allocation method for counties not previously allocated delegates.
This would have replaced the existing section.
Anastasia Wilford
SLEC Member
Paul has corrected me that it was most recently in a version from November 13, 2025 when it was still marked as "in progress", so frankly I can't speak to why it didn't go further than that. 