Elyria, Ohio, has partisan elections, and holds a Mayoral election in November 2011. The Ohio Supreme Court is expected to rule soon on a contentious Ohio election law issue that has never been settled by the Ohio Supreme Court. The election law does not say that independent candidates must not have voted in a partisan primary that same year. It just says, in 3513.04, that they must not have run in a partisan primary that year.

Nevertheless, sometimes county election boards block independent candidates on the grounds that they voted in a partisan primary. Ohio registration forms do not ask voters to choose a party or independent status, so no one can look at any voter’s voter registration card and say he or she is a member of any particular party. However, Ohio elections officials do keep a record of which party’s primary any voter voted in, and Ohio uses that as a proxy for registration into a party.

The case is State ex rel Quinn v Lorain County Board of Elections, 2011-1124. The case was brought by Timothy Quinn, who is trying to be on the ballot for Mayor of Elyria this year. Although he voted in the Democratic primary this year, he says he didn’t vote for anyone for Mayor. Furthermore, he has been an independent candidate in the past, and he had voted in a partisan primary in those past years, and he was still allowed on the ballot in November as an independent. See this story.