The Ohio Green Party is asking voters to choose a Green Party primary ballot in May, and to write-in Anita Rios for Governor and Bob Fitrakis for Lieutenant Governor. The primary is May 6. If the ticket gets 500 write-ins in the primary, it will appear on the November ballot. The Green Party’s web page is asking voters to pledge to cast a write-in vote, and is hoping that such voters identify themselves in advance, so the party will know how it is doing. See this pledge form on the party’s web page.
Libertarians can’t nominate by write-in, for Governor, in the primary, because the deadline for filing as a declared write-in had already passed by the time the party’s candidate was removed from the primary ballot.
The other two ballot-qualified minor parties in Ohio, the Constitution Party and the Socialist Party, have no gubernatorial candidates this year.
Couldn’t the Libertarians have done both, including a back up plan of a write in for just this situation?
Yes, but no one ever dreamed there would be a need to do that. The party’s paid circulators turned in over 1,000 signatures and the signatures were verified and there were enough valid (500 were needed). No one could have imagined what would have happened.