Ohio is holding primaries this year for six political parties, including the Constitution, Green, Libertarian and Socialist Parties. Candidates in those primaries need 25 signatures to get on the primary ballot. Ty Collinsworth is a college student trying to run in the Green Party primary for state Representative in the 92nd district, in Athens. A Democrat has filed a challenge to Collinsworth’s petition. See this story, from the Jesse Hathaway blog.
The story says that members of one party do not have the legal right to file a petition challenge in the primary of another party. The story also says that the challenger identified himself as a Democrat when he filled out an application to vote absentee in the 2008 primary. Thanks to Bill Van Allen for the link.
Protests against a candidate in a partisan primary may be made by the controlling committee of that party, or by any qualified elector who is a member of the same party as the candidate and who is eligible to vote for the candidate whose petition is the subject of the protest.
(R.C. 3513.041, 3513.05, 3517.014, 3517.015)
(from the SOS candidate requirement guide, 2010)
The application that says “DEM” was dated 10/20/2008 and was for a provisional ballot due to a change of address. So it would have been for the general election.
The instructions said that if the election was a primary, which party did you wish to affiliate with (and vote their ballot). Since it was a general election, the information is totally extraneous.
A person may become a candidate of a newly-formed party for four years following its founding, regardless of their past political history (3517.013). I can’t imagine that the law would be more restrictive for a mere voter.
The lawyer for the Green Party in the Florida case of the mysterious legislative candidates is a Democratic hack lawyer, so it probably doesn’t matter that the lawyer for Metcalf has represent Phillips in other election matters in the past.
Jim Riley points out “A person may become a candidate of a newly-formed party for four years following its founding, regardless of their past political history (3517.013). I can’t imagine that the law would be more restrictive for a mere voter.”
The Green Party was founded in 2001, nine years ago. I was there. Any way Phillips can’t object unless she is going to sya she’s now a Green ?