Via Eric Dixon at LP.org. I will try to provide live coverage of the event tomorrow with Laura Whitfield of the LP of Alabama. -paulie

Alabama voters have more candidates to choose from than controversial GOP nominee Roy Moore and Democratic candidate Doug Jones. Seven other candidates have declared as write-in candidates, including Libertarian Party candidate Ron Bishop. All nine have been invited to participate in a candidate debate on Tuesday, Dec. 5, at 7 p.m. in the Perry County Courthouse. The debate is sponsored by WVFG Radio of Uniontown. Five of the candidates, including Libertarian Ron Bishop, have agreed to participate in the debate. The Ron Bishop campaign website plans to offer a live feed of the event.

Ballot access laws in Alabama are practically insurmountable for third-party candidates, requiring 20 percent of the vote in the last election in order to stay on the ballot. Petitioning to get on the ballot requires 3 percent of the vote total in a statewide race, the highest in the nation. A special election, like the vote for Alabama Senate on Dec. 12, adds time constraints to the campaigning process and makes the petitioning requirement even more difficult to meet.

The Libertarian Party thanks WVFG Radio for providing this opportunity for Alabamians to hear about their other choices on Election Day, especially Libertarian candidate Ron Bishop, who supports balancing the federal budget, free trade as the cornerstone of American prosperity, a non-interventionist foreign policy, and unwavering support for the Second Amendment.

“In Alabama, as elsewhere, Libertarians offer the common-sense alternative to being forced to choose between increasingly partisan Democrats and Republicans,” said Libertarian National Committee Chair Nicholas Sarwark. “To that end, the Libertarian Party plans to field 2000 candidates, on the ballot, in 2018.”

Learn more about Libertarian Ron Bishop for Alabama Senate at his campaign website.