On September 20, the Ohio Supreme Court ordered the state to print the name of an independent candidate on the November ballot. The candidate, Terpsehore P. Maras, is running for Secretary of State. State ex rel Maras v LaRose, 2022-1083. Here is the Opinion.
The requirement is 5,000 signatures. The various counties had verified 5,010 signatures originally, and later they found some more valid signatures and notified the Secretary of State’s office of their last-minute discoveries. But the Secretary of State refused to accept the supplemental signatures. Also he determined that some of the signatures had been validated in error, and he found there were only 4,993 signatures.
The Court said the Secretary of State should have accepted the last-minute additional signatures.
The Supreme Court vote was 4-2. The dissesnters did not disagree with the findings about the number of signatures, but felt that the court papers had technical errors and therefore that the Court should not have accepted the case.
As a result of the court decision, the only states with no statewide minor party or independent candidates in November 2022 are California and Kentucky. As to the states that don’t have any statewide offices up this year, all of those states have at least one minor party or independent candidate for US House on the ballot. In those states that is the office at the top of the ballot.
LaRose was intent on removing his competition here. Just looking for a reason. He has no credibility with the Ohio Supreme Court, moreover, given his actions with the Redistricting Commission. Ohio has a history of SoS’s protecting themselves and their own from competition by Libertarians, Greens, independents, etc.
From today’s Columbus Dispatch:
https://www.dispatch.com/story/news/politics/elections/2022/09/20/qanon-podcaster-should-be-on-ballot-rules-ohio-supreme-court/69507480007/
And from the Plain Dealer:
https://www.cleveland.com/opinion/2022/09/how-ohio-stacks-the-system-against-independent-and-minor-party-candidates-mark-r-brown.html
Whether this is a good thing or not depends on whether it helps or hurts the GOP. We are at war with the satanic left and everything has to be viewed through that prism being that these are the end times.