Former Gov. William F. Weld returned to Beacon Hill yesterday quirky as ever, casting himself in a span of minutes as a “change agent,” a backgammon enthusiast and a viable third-party vice presidential candidate.

Weld toted a box of signatures to the state elections office with an eye toward getting his and presidential candidate Gary Johnson’s names on Bay State ballots as the Libertarian Party national ticket.

Along the way, Weld laid out his view of a third-party path to the White House between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, shrugging off comments from the state’s top elections official that such a vote would be a “waste.”

“My analysis … is that we have a path to run right up the middle and win the whole thing here,” Weld told reporters before submitting 3,000 signatures to the office of Secretary of State William F. Galvin, which his campaign said should put him and Johnson over the 10,000-signature threshold to be on the ballot.

“But libertarians never tell other people what to do,” Weld added. “So if anyone in the commonwealth wants to waste their vote by casting it for Trump or Clinton, it’s OK with us.”

Weld declined the chance to get into a tiff with Galvin, who told Democrats nearly two weeks ago not to “waste their vote” on a third-party candidate or a “protest vote.” Instead Weld sought to portray his party as a major player capable of building on the 8 percent it’s gotten in recent polls, with a goal of hitting the 15 percent threshold to get on the debate stage with Trump and Clinton.

“The ice is cracking a little bit,” Weld said. “We’ve seen it start to crack in Congress just this week. I’ve spoken with a few Republican members of Congress who are interested in reassessing their endorsements for the fall and others as well.”

All the while, he gave classic Weld answers. Asked if he was a “tired, old voice of the past,” he chuckled. “I don’t know if I’m a voice of the past,” he said, noting he and Johnson, the former governor of New Mexico, were “change agents.”

Pressed on what he brought to the ticket, Weld recounted playing backgammon with Johnson on a plane heading to a series of West Coast events.

“I think having a ticket-mate … you’re personally comfortable with, that’s important,” he said.

And while lugging the box of signatures to the elections office, he said he felt “like Santa Claus.”

“Except we come every four years,” Weld said.

But while he is trying to sell his small-government stance to moderate Republicans, he said he’s not personally pitching Gov. Charlie Baker, his former protege who has said he’s not voting for president this year.

Baker, at a separate event, said he can’t back a Libertarian ticket that supports legalizing all drugs. But the Swampscott Republican emphasized he still has a soft spot for his former mentor.

“He sounds,” Baker said, “as articulate and as genuine as ever.”