Caryn Ann Harlos

In October 2016, Harlos challenged the Colorado "ballot selfie" law in a lawsuit against Colorado Secretary of State Wayne W. Williams, Attorney General of Colorado Cynthia Coffman, and District Attorney of Denver Mitchell R. Morrissey over its constitutionality.[15] Prior to filing the suit, she had petitioned Coffman and Morrissey to declare the law unconstitutional, to which they declined.[16] In the suit, she argued that it is her constitutional right to post a picture of her voting for the Libertarian candidate in an effort to promote the party. Two other plaintiffs were involved in the lawsuit, both of whom had violated the law by taking and sharing pictures of their ballot, and thus were at risk of prosecution.[17][18] This was the second suit filed against that law, the first being filed by Owen Hill, a Colorado state representative.[17] In November 2016, a federal judge granted a preliminary injunction, preventing the state from prosecuting people for violations of the law, and in March 2017 Governor Hickenlooper signed into law a bill permitting ballot selfies.[19][20]

In 2016, the Libertarian Party's nominee for president was Gary Johnson, who promoted Bill Weld to be the vice presidential nominee. Harlos opposed Weld, arguing for a member of the Radical Caucus to be on the ticket to balance with some of Johnson's views that did not conform to typical Libertarian positions.[21] At the 2016 Libertarian National Convention, she made a nominating speech for vice presidential candidate Will Coley, who lost to Weld.[12][22]

In her capacity as a spokeswoman for the Libertarian Party of Colorado, she heavily criticized the candidates for the two major parties, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, describing them as "the two most disliked candidates since ancient Rome" and predicting "the death of the two-party political system as we know it."[23]

After the election, when membership for the Libertarian Party dropped, Harlos contacted people who let their membership expire in an attempt to retain dues-paying members. Although there were significant ideological conflicts within the party, Harlos heard mostly reasons unrelated to those. Most members contacted were entirely unfamiliar with the names of the party's chair and vice chair.[24]

In 2017, while the representative of Region 1 Libertarian National Committee, Harlos worked to establish the Historical Preservation Committee. It was tasked with maintaining the party's history, and given a $10,000 budget to do so. She collected documents, tape recordings, bumper stickers, buttons, fliers, and other items from the party's past. The documents were then organized and digitized in the committee's MediaWiki-based community-driven project, LPedia.[1][25][26] In 2018, Harlos and others recovered the Libertarian Party's founding document, the original "Statement of Principles", which was found on eBay.[27]

In early 2018, Harlos announced her opposition to a ban on kratom, a plant-based pain reliever and stimulant, instituted by Denver Environmental Health. At the time, she was the communications director for the Libertarian Party of Colorado. In agreement with Libertarian Party views, she argued that the government does not have a right to regulate whether the drug can be used. Harlos used the drug herself to help with a degenerative back disorder and spinal stenosis.[28]