Some Ohio Statewide Minor Party Primary Petitions Fail to Have Enough Valid Signatures

Ohio election laws require statewide minor party candidates in primaries to submit at least 500 signatures to be on their own party’s primary ballot. According to this story, the Ohio Libertarian primary petitions for Secretary of State, Treasurer, and Auditor did not have 500 valid signatures. Also the Green Party’s primary petitions for Governor and Lieutenant Governor also failed to contain at least 500 valid signatures.

The Libertarian primary petitions for Governor-Lieutenant Governor and Attorney General did have at least 500 valid signatures.

These parties could still potentially nominate candidates by write-in votes, but 500 write-ins would be needed. In 2012 the Ohio Libertarian and Green Parties tried very hard to nominate their U.S. Senate candidates by write-ins at the primaries, but did not succeed in getting the needed 500 write-in votes.

It’s also possible that the various excluded candidates can demonstrate that they really did have enough valid signatures. The primary is May 6.

Comments

Some Ohio Statewide Minor Party Primary Petitions Fail to Have Enough Valid Signatures — No Comments

David on February 18, 2014 at 5:47 pm said:

With the growth of the Ohio LP, wouldn’t they have 500 members who could vote for these write-in candidates?
Richard Winger on February 18, 2014 at 5:48 pm said:

There is some reason to think that Ohio election officials don’t do a good job of tallying write-in votes.
Cody Quirk on February 18, 2014 at 9:29 pm said:

… How about the CP? Are they running that one guy for congress then?
Richard Winger on February 18, 2014 at 10:17 pm said:

The news media hasn’t gathered the information yet for Ohio candidates for US House and legislature. Those cndidates file with the biggest county in their district, whereas statewide candidates file with the Sec. of State. So the news media easily gets the statewide candidate list, but we just all have to wait for the list of district candidates. The chances that the Constitution Party candidate obtained 25 valid signatures to run for US House are quite high, because 25 is a small number and he has successfully petitioned in past elections.
Kevin Knedler on February 18, 2014 at 10:26 pm said:

But after the NOvember election, and if the LP candidate for Governor gets 2%, the LP Ohio party will be the only ballot-qualified alternative party in Ohio. THe other parties will not be recognized, unless they can get those 500 write-ins during their primary and also get 2% of the vote for Governor in 2014–tough road.