On February 23, the Ohio Libertarian Party held a statewide nominating convention. The party nominated candidates for presidential elector, four candidates for U.S. House, three for State House, and one for State Senate.

The party will submit a petition to the Secretary of State in the next week, in advance of the Ohio primary set for March 4, and ask to be recognized as a qualified party. The old Ohio petition procedure was declared unconstitutional by the 6th Circuit in September 2006, and the legislature has not passed a new law to replace it. Under a 6th circuit precedent from 1984, called Goldman-Frankie v Austin (a Michigan case), when a state’s ballot access has been declared unconstitutional and the legislature has not passed a new law, state officials must place any party or any candidate on the November ballot if that party or that candidate can show a modicum of support.

The Ohio Secretary of State in 2007 had responded to the gap in the Ohio law by saying she would place any group on the ballot as a party if it submitted 20,114 valid signatures by late November 2007. The Ohio Libertarian Party will try to persuade the Secretary of State to recognize it, even though it did not meet her conditions. If that does not succeed, the party will probably file a new lawsuit, arguing that it has shown a modicum of support and that under the Goldman-Frankie precedent, that is sufficient.