On March 20, Samuel Ronan filed a federal ballot access lawsuit to be on the Ohio Republican primary ballot as a candidate for U.S. House, 15th district. The day before, the Secretary of State of Ohio had kept him off the ballot. Because the ballots had already been printed with Ronan’s name on them, Ronan only needed to win a court order to prevent election officials from sending a notice to voters that he is not qualified and that ballots for him would not be counted. Ronan v LaRose, s.d., 2:26cv-343.

Late in the day on March 20, U.S. District Court Judge Sarah Morrison, a Trump appointee, ordered the Secretary of State not to send out any notices to voters, or notices at early voting polling places, saying Ronan is not a qualified candidate.

The local election board had tied, with two Republicans voting to disqualify Ronan and two Democrats voting to keep him on the ballot. The Secretary of State, a Republican, then broke the tie and ruled against Ronan. Ronan had been challenged on the grounds that he is not really a bona fide Republican. But the Ohio election law has no provision to disqualify candidates from primary ballots on those grounds. It is common in Ohio for independent candidates to be challenged on the basis that they aren’t really independent. But there is no analogous provision in the law to keep people off a primary ballot on grounds that they aren’t sincere party members.

The case is not over, and Ronan’s relief is only temporary, but it seems likely that he will prevail, given the judge’s speedy action to keep his candidacy alive. Here is the Complaint that explains the interesting details of how and why Ronan had been disqualified.