On April 5, a state trial court in Columbus, Ohio, heard testimony in Libertarian Party of Ohio v Husted, 16-cv-554. Bob Fitrakis of the Ohio Green Party, Kevin Knedler of the Libertarian Party, and Bob Bridges of the Libertarian Party, all testified. The lawsuit argues that the 2013 ballot access law violates the State Constitution, because that Constitution seems to say that all parties must nominate by primary, yet the 2013 law says new parties don’t nominate by primary. The State argued that the Ohio Constitutional provision mandating primaries for all parties can’t really be enforced by a lawsuit.
The Ohio Constitution states “all nominations for elective … offices shall be made at direct primary elections or by petition as provided by law”
I don’t see why you can’t understand that “or” means that the legislature may require some nominations to be made by petition.
The Ohio Supreme Court has already ruled that “by petition” refers to independent candidates.
Newly-qualifying parties in Ohio nominate by convention, and then the convention nominees go out and get a small number of signatures on a petition. But those candidates are not being “nominated” by that petition; they are nominated by the party. The US Supreme Court ruled in 2000 in California Democratic Party v Jones that the First Amendment’s freedom of association clause protects parties from having their nominees chosen by outsiders. So if the 2013 Ohio law is interpreted the way Jim suggests, it would be unconstitutional.
That is not true about the Ohio Supreme Court.
Ohio has a sore loser provision that prevents losers in primaries from becoming nominees of other parties or as independents. There was a candidate who lost a primary, but was named to fill a vacancy in nomination.
The plaintiffs argued since he was not nominated by petition, he must have been nominated by primary. Any construction by the Ohio Supreme Court was of the statute at that time. The Supreme Court then ruled that in the special case of filling a vacancy in nomination that the other provision did not apply.
In effect the Supreme Court ruled:
(1) The nomination was not by petition;
(2) The nomination was not by primary;
(3) Therefore the nomination was not by primary or petition;
(4) Therefore the nomination did not violate the sore loser law;
(5) Even though the nomination was not by primary or petition, the constitutional requirement of nomination by primary or petition does not apply in the particular circumstances.
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Ohio does have provisions for nonpartisan primaries 3513.426.
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You are presuming that nomination by petition or primary can have no interaction with party officials. In Ohio, the sponsors of the party petition have to certify the nominating petition.
Signers of the party formation petition and of the the candidate petition may not have voted in another primary, protecting freedom of association.
I have been trying to change my party affiliation for many years only to be told at each election that I must wait for the next primary to do it. When trying to change at the primary I was told that they “did not have the paperwork necessary at that time” and that I would have to do it at the board of elections. So when I went to the board of elections I was told that I had to do it at the next primary at the voting place. (again!) What a run-around!!
Finally I went in to the board of elections and caused such a scene that they told me I could register as a “green party”. I wanted to be Libertarian but wasn’t allowed to so I took the green party under protest. They just wanted to shut me up as others were witnessing someone not being able to vote the way they wanted. I waited for 15-20 minutes for them to come up with the paperwork for me to vote green! Isn’t this the U.S.A? Liberty in Ohio! I want to be a member of the Libertarian Party!