On January 17, Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted ordered that William M. O’Neill be placed on the Democratic primary ballot for Justice of the Ohio Supreme Court, even though the counties who had checked O’Neill’s petitions had said he had only 993 valid signatures. 1,000 are required. Husted independently examined some of the supposedly invalid signatures, and determined that at least seven of them were valid. See this story.

Husted acknowledged that adding O’Neill’s name to the March 6 ballot would cause some inconvenience to certain counties that had already begun preparations for printing and mailing ballots. The Virginia presidential primary, and the Ohio primary, are on the same day, March 6.