In 2006, Ohio’s procedure by which political parties get on the ballot was held unconstitutional. Almost three years have passed, and no bill has been introduced to write a new law to replace the old void one.
Under a federal court decision won by the Ohio Libertarian Party in 2008, as long as there is no valid ballot access law in place, the state cannot keep any party off the ballot, if it can show that it has a modicum of support. As a result, it is growing increasingly likely that the Libertarian, Green, Constitution and Socialist Parties will remain on the ballot automatically in 2010. Because Ohio’s Constitution requires all qualified political parties to nominate by primary, and because Ohio has its primary in May in 2010, even if the legislature passed a bill in early 2010, it could not impose requirements that would be in effect in 2010.
The Ohio legislature is still in session, but as soon as it passes a budget bill, it will recess for the summer, but will return in the autumn of 2009.
I recently emailed the sos office about ballot access, since I’m likely to run next year.
Here is the response:
”
A little back information for you. The Ohio Supreme Court has ruled that the laws governing ballot access in Ohio are unconstitutional. The General Assembly has not created any new law that addresses this situation. Therefore, our office drafted a procedure for party access. This however, was found unenforceable by the courts as well because the Secretary of State cannot create law. In the end, the four minor parties were granted access to the 2008 ballot by either court order or agreement with the individual party. The theory is if they are denied access in 2009, more lawsuits will be filed with the same outcome. So, as to not accrue more legal costs, the same four parties will be granted access in 2009. We hope that part of the elections reform bill currently being drafted address this situation.”
Thank you.
It is amazing that the Ohio Secretary of State’s office is so careless that it would say the decision came from the Ohio Supreme Court. That is a factual mistake. The decision came from the U.S. Court of Appeals, 6th circuit. The 6th circuit includes not only Ohio, but Michigan, Tennessee and Kentucky. The decision makes it fairly plain that the Tennessee law on how political parties get on the ballot is also unconstitutional. The case against the Tennessee law was filed in January 2008 and is still pending.