Dear Fellow Patriots:

The 2016 tumultuous and historic General Election is behind us and it has opened numerous doors of opportunity for the Constitution Party. Prior to election night, numerous critics of our party predicted that our presidential candidates would garner less that 100,000 votes. Thanks to many of our loyal Constitution Party workers and the thousands of new people who joined the campaign, not only did we exceed that total, but we more than doubled it in spite of the fact that we were on the ballot in two less states this year than in 2012.

The latest tally I have shows that the Castle/Bradley ticket won 202,979 votes which is an all time historic high for the party. Four states, Virginia, Oregon, Alabama and New Hampshire are not tabulating write in votes by candidate so we will never know the number of votes we received in those states. Nebraska and Rhode Island have yet to report their write in votes. Were these votes to be counted I am confident that the total number of votes cast for our presidential candidate would be between 205,000 to 210,000. Much of the credit for our success goes to Bob Peck and Karen Murray of Washington state and to Joan Castle who worked an endless number of hours to make the campaign successful.

Click here to view a spreadsheet which shows state by state the number of votes our presidential candidates received in 2012 vs 2016. Updated totals can be found on our national website by logging into www.constitutionparty.com

I just want to make the following comments:

1. Total votes received in the 2012 presidential election were 122,389 vs 202,979 so far this year. That is a net gain of 80,772 votes or 66.09% over 2012 and of course this does not include any of the yet to be counted votes above. Even more impressive was the increase in write in votes which went from 4,879 in 2012 to 16,138 for a 230.07% increase.
2. Getting on the ballot in each state is a real challenge.  Once a candidate raises a given amount of funds they can receive additional federal funds. This enabled Jill Stein to get on a number of more states’ ballots.  However, the Constitution Party does not accept Federal funding so this makes getting ballot qualified considerably more challenging.  The party feels it is not the role of the government to tax it’s citizens to fund any political party against their wishes. We depended solely on our own ability to raise funds and the willingness of people such as you to build the part and promote our candidates.
3. On a percentage basis the Western states did exceptionally well. Alaska was at the top of the list with 1.21% of the vote. South Dakota ( A Midwestern state) was second with 1.10% and Hawaii was third with 1.05%. Wyoming was fourth with 0.80% followed by Utah fifth with 0.71%.
4. The state providing the highest number of votes was Pennsylvania with 21,572. Washington was second with 17,623, Florida was third with 16,475, Michigan was fourth with 16,139 and Missouri was fifth with 13,092 votes. Other states that provided over 10,000 votes were Wisconsin, and Colorado.
5. Take note of the vote totals in 2012 vs 2016 in states that were ballot qualified in both elections. Every single state improved. That is remarkable and reflects the hard work of a good many people. For write in states that we have thus far, Indiana ,Illinois, Montana, Texas and Vermont had impressive gains over 2012.
6. Forward this on to your people and encourage them to do the same. They will appreciate seeing this as this is about the only source of good information that many of them will have access to. The major media will continue to ignore us and so we just have to acknowledge that and develop our own sources of communication.
7. We retained ballot access in Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, Wisconsin and Wyoming. Five of those states are in the West, four are in the Mid-West, and three are in the South. Both Hawaii and Alabama have stated their intention to begin gathering signatures right after the first of the year. It is my hope that many other states will follow suit. Petitioning expenses are much cheaper in the off year elections since petitioners are hungry for work.

Now that the election is behind us, our real work begins.

The Huntsville Alabama National Committee meeting was well attended and new leadership has stepped forward. Gary Welch a recent transplant to Utah from Washington State where he worked closely as a demographer with the Republican Party and more recently with the Gary Johnson campaign has joined our ranks and has agreed to serve as our new communications director. He will replace Karen Murray who has given her all to the party for years and feels she needs to take a breather. Clint Bishop from Alabama accepted the position of Media and Organizational Director and has already benefited the party tremendously with his talents. Carolyn Cosby of Georgia has agreed to serve as our National Ballot Access Coordinator and will work closely with me and others to get ballot access in as many states as possible and as quickly as funds permit. Dale Clinbeard of South Carolina who has been a tremendous asset to us in getting access for the Castle/Bradley ticket will continue to work with us. All of these people are donating their talents to the party at no charge for which I am most grateful. All of them are very new to the party.

At the conclusion of the Huntsville meeting, we met together to begin our strategy. It is our goal to begin getting ballot access where legally permitted in at least one state in each region beginning the first of the new year. Hawaii is a top target as we need about 750 valid signatures to get on the ballot there and the needed leg work has already been completed.

Alaska is another target state, and in Louisiana, the effort is already moving forward, under the leadership of Ron Tucker. We need 1,000 voters to register as Constitution Party to qualify that state. Other states will be announced shortly.

Our goal is to get at least four new states ballot qualified by our Spring National Committee meeting. More states will follow in the ensuing months. Not having ballot access prior to 2016 was a huge handicap for the party in this last election. Funds were spent on getting ballot access that were needed to support the campaign.

To achieve that is going to cost money. I am therefore asking you to donate as generously as you can and as quickly at you can to help us reach those goals. Success in one state will ignite success in other states. Critical to our success are consistent monthly donations that will ensure a steady flow of cash into the party. Please donate here.

You can also send your payment directly to our mailing address: PO Box 1782; Lancaster, Pennsylvania 17608.

Please select your choice of the type of donation you are making.
Funds donated to the ballot access effort will be used strictly for that purpose. Funds donated to your state’s annual dues assessment of $1,000.00 and funds donated to the Howard Phillips Legacy Society can be used toward ballot access as well as to covering the daily operating expenses of the party.

Donations in the amount of $5.00, $10.00, $15.00, $20.00, $25.00, $50.00, $100.00 or more are deeply appreciated. The key is to donate every month, month after month. One thousand people donating just $10.00 a month brings in $10,000 which will enable us to move forward with achieving ballot access.

Getting ballot access in 2017 and 2018 and then running candidates for low profile state wide office will enable us to retain ballot access for the 2020 General Election. Doing so will be a key to the future growth of the party. Please act without delay.

Thanks again for all you are doing.

Frank Fluckiger
National Chairman