Ohio held its primary on May 8. On June 21, the Secretary of State released data on how many voters chose each party’s primary ballot. The three parties that had primaries are the Republican, Democratic, and Green Parties. This data is important, because there is no question on the Ohio voter registration form asking the applicant to choose a party (or to choose independent status). Instead, the only party membership data in Ohio is the number of voters who choose each party’s primary ballot.
Here is the Secretary of State’s report. It shows that the Green Party now is considered to have 7,353 members. Before the primary, the state considered the party to have 4,200 members.

The Ohio Libertarian Party expects to be on the ballot in November, and will submit its party petition on July 2. Then it will nominate by convention. Each of its nominees then must submit his or her own petition at that point, consisting of 50 names for statewide office, and 5 for district office. But because it didn’t have a primary, the state considers the party not to have any members.

On June 20, an Arizona trial court heard the challenge to the petition of Kevin McCormick, Libertarian Party candidate for Governor. All parties in Arizona must nominate by primary. Candidates in all parties need signatures to get on their own party’s primary ballots. Kevin McCormick was found not to have enough valid signatures to be on the Libertarian primary ballot. He needed 3,153 signatures, and only registered Libertarians and registered independents could sign.

McCormick had enough signatures of registered voters, but over 1,000 of his signers were registered Republicans or registered Democrats. The petition drive had been conducted entirely by volunteers, who carefully asked each potential signer about how the individual was registered. Hundreds of people said they were registered independents, and signed, but in reality they weren’t independents; they were major party members. See McCormick’s facebook video for more about this.

Arizona allows candidates to collect signatures on-line, but McCormick and his campaign believe that the on-line system does not work properly, and that thousands of people who tried to sign on-line were wrongfully rejected. He plans to file a freedom of information request to learn more about this problem.

In 2005, the Arizona legislature passed a law that is still in effect, that says anyone who tries and fails to get on a ballot cannot then run for the same office as a write-in in the general election.

The Libertarian Party is currently suing to overturn the law on how candidates get on the primary ballot. The case is in the 9th circuit. All the briefs have been filed, but the date for the oral argument has not been set.

A Libertarian candidate for U.S. Senate will be on the Arizona primary this year, because his petition was not challenged. Thanks to Andy Craig for the link to McCormick’s facebook video.

North Dakota held its primaries on June 12. Three parties were on the primary ballot, and voters were free to vote in any party’s primary, Republican, Democratic, or Libertarian. The Libertarian Party only had one candidate for statewide office, Roland Riemers. He was running for Secretary of State. The law requires winners of statewide primaries to receive at least 300 votes. If they don’t, they can’t appear on the November ballot.

Riemers was credited with only 247 votes, so he is not on the ballot in November. As a result, the Libertarian Party won’t be able to remain on the ballot as a qualified party after November 2018. The law requires the party to poll 5% for either Secretary of State or Attorney General this year. The 5% vote test must be met every two years, and now it cannot be met in 2018. To get back on the ballot for 2020, the party will need 7,000 signatures collected during 2019 or 2020.

All the statewide Libertarians in the 2016 and 2014 primaries received over 1,000 votes, and even in earlier years, always polled at least 500 primary votes. It may be that 2018 has the most polarized electorate in the United States in many years, and voters who in previous years were willing to vote for minor parties, this year are either highly motivated to vote Republican or Democratic, depending on whether they have passionate feelings either pro or con about President Donald Trump.

Ironically, a poll published June 21, which included in the Secretary of State’s race, showed Riemers getting 6% of the general election vote. The race is very unusual, because the Republican Party has no nominee, but the incumbent Secretary of State is running for re-election as an independent. The poll shows Jaeger leading with 51%, and the Democrat, Josh Boshee, at 32%. Assuming Jaeger is re-elected, he will be the first person elected Secretary of State as an independent in U.S. history.