The Ohio law is section 3505.10(B). It says the November ballot, in presidential years, will include “the names of the candidates for president and vice-president certified to the secretary of state or nominated in one of the following manners: (1) Nominated by the national convention of a political party to which delegates and alternates were elected in this state at the next preceding primary election. A political party certifying candidates so nominated shall certify the names of those candidates to the secretary of state on or before the 90th day before the day of the general election.”

Texas had a similar problem in 2008. The law required the names to be certified by a date that was earlier than the date of the Republican and Democratic national conventions. The Secretary of State did not enforce the deadline in 2008, and in 2009 the Texas legislature repealed the deadline. The Ohio legislature is still in session so it could fix the problem if it wished.

In the meantime, even though the Constitution Party has filed its candidates with the state, the state’s web page does not include the Constitution Party nominees on the list of candidates. This is having a discouraging effect on the party’s candidates. Their attempts to campaign are injured because they are not found on the Secretary of State’s web page. The Green Party has not yet had its nominating convention.

As of 7 a.m. Pacific time, the Secretary of State’s election returns web page shows 17,490 write-ins for Attorney General, and 16,523 for Treasurer. Those numbers will increase. Here is a link to the returns.

However, official returns announced on May 3 show that he only polled 337, not enough to have his name on the November ballot. The unofficial returns on election night had showed he had 407 write-ins, with some counties unable to provide a write-in tally. Later, on March 28, Ohio elections officials had said it appeared he had between 700 and 800, but that turned out not to be true.

It is likely that the unofficial election returns on election night were not the total for Fockler, but the number of all write-ins cast for U.S. Senate in the Libertarian primary, including the names of people who had not filed as a declared write-in. The official tally does not mention how many voters cast a write-in for someone who wasn’t a declared write-in candidate.

The Green Party actually had more write-ins for U.S. Senate in its primary, although no Green got enough write-in votes either. Joseph DeMare got 324 write-ins, and his opponent Anita Rios got 74, for a total of 398 write-ins for a declared write-in candidate for U.S. Senate in the Green Party primary.

Libertarians will have eight nominees for U.S. House on the November ballot in November, and Greens will have three. All of the Libertarian and Green nominees for U.S. House had their names printed on their own party’s primary ballot, except that one Libertarian was a primary write-in candidate and polled exactly 25 write-ins, the bare minimum needed for the nomination. The write-in candidate who got enough votes for U.S. House is Chris Kalla in the 4th district.

As noted in earlier posts about the South Carolina ballot access snafu, South Carolina is tied for having the most difficult independent candidate petition requirements in the nation, for legislature and county partisan office. For those offices, the law requires 5% of the number of registered voters. South Carolina has never had an independent candidate on the ballot for U.S. House, even though the U.S. House requirement is capped at 10,000, which means the requirement is approximately 2.7% for U.S. House. Nor has South Carolina ever had an independent candidate on the ballot for statewide office, other than president. The statewide independent petition is also capped at 10,000.

Although the law is unclear, there is a plausible reason to believe that South Carolina’s ballot-qualified minor parties could nominate some of these candidates if they wish to. South Carolina’s ballot-qualified minor parties all nominate by convention, not primary.

Americans Elect’s Board will meet on Thursday morning, May 17, to decide what happens next. It is somewhat plausible that the qualifying deadlines for candidates seeking a place on the Americans Elect primary ballot will be moved to a later date. Americans Elect petition drives that are underway, including the difficult Texas petition, are continuing in the meantime.