Ralph Nader has this op-ed in The Morning Call, daily newspaper published in Allentown, Pennsylvania.
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This newspaper story reveals that the Ohio Republican Party paid the legal expenses to the law firm that represented the individual who challenged the 2014 Libertarian primary petition for Charlie Earl. Earl was the party’s candidate for Governor, but because at the time all Ohio qualified parties nominated by primary, Earl had to get his name on the Libertarian Party primary ballot. His petition needed 500 signatures. It was challenged on the basis that the petition circulators didn’t fill out the blank on the form that asked who was paying them.
Only now has the news surfaced that the legal bill for the challenger was $300,000, and the Ohio Republican Party paid the bill.
The Libertarian Party had no candidate for Governor on the November ballot, so it went off the ballot. The party was on for two other statewide offices, and they polled almost 5% of the vote, but the Ohio law only counted the gubernatorial vote for purposes of retaining ballot status. Earl couldn’t be a write-in candidate in the Ohio Libertarian primary because the filing deadline for write-in candidates had already passed when he was removed from the ballot. That also explains who no other Libertarian could run for Governor in the party’s primary as a write-in.
On May 18, the Commission on Presidential Debates placed this request for public comments on the CPD web page. The CPD web page is debates.org. The page specifically asks for public comments about who should be invited into general election presidential debates. Every reader of this web page should take the time to make a comment.
After one comments, the page makes it possible for the commenter to print out a copy of what he or she has just said. The comments will be open through July 10.
On May 18, the Oregon House passed HB 3475, the National Popular Vote Plan for presidential elections. The vote was 37-21. This is the first National Popular Vote Plan bill that has made any headway in 2015. Now the bill goes to the Senate Committee.
University of Oklahoma political scientist Ronald Keith Gaddie says in this article that Oklahoma’s legislature should have gone further this year with a ballot access improvement. The legislature lowered the petition for newly-qualifying parties from 5% of the last vote cast to 3% of the last gubernatorial vote. Ironically, Oklahoma still has the nation’s most restrictive ballot access for presidential candidates running outside the major parties. No other state is higher than 2% of the last vote cast.
Gaddie is a former chair of the Political Science Department at the University of Oklahoma, and is an expert on election law. Thanks to E. Zachary Knight for the link.