Last year, U.S. District Court Judge Algenon Marbley issued an injunction, putting the Ohio Libertarian Party on the ballot. The Ohio Secretary of State did not appeal, but the Ohio legislature then moved to intervene. On December 21, 2011, the Ohio legislature filed a brief in the 6th circuit, arguing that the U.S. District Court should not have put the Libertarian Party on the ballot. The brief also argues that the legislature has standing to intervene, and that its appeal is timely.
The legislature argues that when it passed a new ballot access law in the summer of 2011, that new law was constitutional, and the Libertarian Party should have then commenced to get the required 38,525 signatures, even though at the time no one knew if that law were going to be in effect or not. The uncertainty was caused by the fact that a referendum petition was filed against the new law, preventing it from going into effect. Furthermore, neither the Libertarian Party nor anyone else could possibly have known what the petition deadline would be. The new law said the petition deadline would be 90 days before the primary, but the legislature moved the date of the primary twice during the latter half of 2011. The legislature’s argument is almost laughable. The Ohio Libertarian Party will be filing its response soon. In the meantime, the state is going ahead with preparations for the Libertarian Party primary, and the primary for the other minor parties that were added to the ballot by the Secretary of State because it didn’t make sense for him to put the Libertarian Party on, and not the other minor parties.
How does this jibe with the previous story. If the Green Party is on the ballot as per the Ohio Secretary of State’s decision to put the Libertarian Party on the ballot, then why does a prospective Green Party nominee for U.S. Senate need to get 500 write-in votes in a primary in order to appear on the November ballot?
Just because a party is on the ballot, does not mean that its candidates are on that party’s primary ballot.
One more example of why ALL election law stuff MUST BE fixed as of X days before a general election — to STOP the EVIL robot party hacks from last second machinations.
P.R. and nonpartisan App.V.
ONE election day per year.
EQUAL nominating petitions
NO MORON caucuses, primaries and conventions – the party hacks can play games in their back yard sandboxes.
The date of the primary was changed after Judge Marbley issued his temporary injunction (and after HB 194 had been suspended from going into effect because of the filing of the referendum petition). The change is irrelevant to the case.
Had HB 194 gone into effect, Judge Marbley not issued his temporary injunction, and the legislature then changed the date of the primary, the Libertarian Party could have sought relief.
Had HB 194 actually been in effect, the legislature would have been required to be informed of the legal challenge, and given an opportunity to intervene. This was because a previous Secretary of State had attempted to legislate by regulation. In that case, the district court should have stopped at that point – or at minimum sought to determine whether the Ohio Constitution permitted the Secretary of State to legislate for State elections.
The legislature does not argue that a law which was not in effect at the time was constitutional. It argues that because it was not in effect that it was not ripe for adjudication.
Ohio’s regulation compares quite favorably to that in California, where the party petition must be filed 120 days prior to the primary AND where the State deems the filing date to be when the counties transmit their final signature count to the Secretary of State.
@Scott West: I’m the Libertarian Party write-in candidate for US Senate, and I need 500 write-in votes to make the November ballot as well. No alternative party candidate filed nominating petitions to run for Senate this year, but I and two Green Party candidates filed the paperwork to run as write-ins. The election law requires votes equal to the required petition signature total, 500 in the case of the Senate, for inclusion on the general election ballot.
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