The Libertarian Party of Hawaii held its annual convention Sunday amid concessions that its candidates — as few as they might be — face an uphill battle.

The party, which preaches a doctrine of more freedom and less government, staged its convention at locations in Hilo and Honolulu, linked together by Skype, but failed to show much political potential.

Party Chairwoman Tracy Ryan said the organization has just $2,400 in the bank, and the state convention was attended by only about three dozen of the party faithful.

Ryan initially said the Libertarians have about 14 potential candidates in the wings preparing to run for office next year, but later amended that count to say she is aware of about 10 party candidates who actually plan to run or are being asked by the party to run.

That isn’t many contenders for the dozens of state, county and federal offices that will open up next year, but Ryan characterized that candidate tally as an improvement over 2014. By this time in the 2014 election cycle, Ryan said, only two Libertarian candidates said they were interested in running.

The number of candidates fielded by the party is an important statistic. To maintain the Libertarians’ place on the general election ballot, votes cast for Libertarian candidates must equal at least 4 percent of the total number of votes cast in all state Senate races, which worked out to about 7,000 votes in 2014, Ryan said.

Fielding as many candidates as possible is an obvious way to boost the party’s total vote count, which means the Libertarians are recruiting. Ryan said even a placeholder name on the ballot is helpful for the party.

Ryan said the Libertarian vote counts in 2014 got a significant boost from three Big Island candidates who ran in one-on-one general election contests. “If you’re in a head-to-head election and you’ve got a pulse, you’re going to get about 20 percent of the vote. So, that’s what we’re aiming for now,” Ryan said.

The morning keynote speaker for the convention was Roger Christie, a longtime Libertarian who ran for mayor of the Big Island in 2004. Christie, former head of the Hawaii Cannabis Ministry, pleaded guilty in September 2013 to federal charges of marijuana trafficking and failing to file tax returns.

Christie has near-celebrity status among some marijuana supporters for serving 50 months in federal prison after his arrest in July 2010 on the trafficking indictment. Christie said the government claims “ownership” of ordinary citizens.

“Now the government again claims the power of kings, seizing ownership of our bodies, our communications, our writings, our photographs if they are online and even our very children if they say that they want to vaccinate them without any exception at all,” Christie said.

In a curious digression, Christie said he believes modern-day humans were “genetically manufactured as a slave species from Homo erectus and the genes of a race of demigods called known as the Anunnaki.” He suggested that people “look ’em up and see what you think.”

“That said, we do have a great measure of free will, and I’m very grateful for that,” Christie said.

Libertarian candidates who were introduced at the convention expressed more conventional concerns — about the unfunded liabilities of Hawaii’s public employee pension system and health fund, as well as about the large number of people who are imprisoned for drug offenses in the United States.

One of this next year’s announced candidates is Volcano resident Fred Fogel, 65, who said he had planned to campaign on Halloween using the slogan “No Be Scared, Vote Libertarian.” However, Fogel said he “never did get around to it.”

Fogel said he tentatively plans to run for a state Senate seat representing southern Hilo, Puna and Kau. He said Hawaii’s public educational system “sucks,” and suggested a voucher system and merit pay for the best teachers would improve the system. Fogel acknowledged the teachers union would object to vouchers, but “screw the union,” he said.

Fogel urged party members to share their ideas and post political proposals and research online to help Libertarian candidates make their case. He suggested the party could also help by analyzing who voted in which neighborhoods, and have the candidates focus their efforts accordingly.