On July 24, the Sixth Circuit will hear Libertarian Party of Ohio v Husted, the case in which the Libertarian Party had won injunctive relief against Ohio’s February 2012 petition deadline for newly-qualifying parties.
The Secretary of State did not appeal, but the Ohio legislature then intervened in the case so that it could appeal. The hearing will be at 1:30 p.m. in Cincinnati. The appeal is peculiar, because after the Ohio Libertarian Party won injunctive relief against the February 2012 deadline, the deadline reverted back to November 2011. One wonders why the legislature is bothering to appeal an injunction when the law at issue doesn’t even exist any longer.
In 2006 the Sixth Circuit had ruled that a deadline of November of the year before the election is unconstitutional. The current Ohio law still has that deadline, in effect. SB 295, which cancels the referendum on the 2011 omnibus election law bill, passed the House informally on April 25 and will probably pass the House formally when the House returns on May 8.
That’s OK, The state has had the county certifications since, what.. March 27? And they STILL have not certified the primary yet..
#1, right. We still don’t even know if either Ohio Green Party candidates for US Senate in the Green Party primary got enough write-ins to be nominated.
The legislature argues
(1) That the case was not ripe when the injunction was granted, since the law had not gone into effect, and Judge Marbley was confused about its applicability to the 2011 elections;
(2) It is moot because it can not take effect until 2013 because of the impending referendum;
(3) The temporary injunction was unfounded. Marbley was dismissive about the time to conduct a federal election – but the district court in Texas recognized that much time was needed, even under extraordinary conditions.
Of course Ohio should either adopt the Texas system of concurrent nomination and qualification; or use Top 2 like Washington.
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