As reported earlier, the Ohio ballot access bill for minor parties did not pass the legislature on the evening of October 30 because the Senate rejected the House amendments. According to this story in the Columbus Dispatch, the Senate probably would have accepted the House amendments, except the Senate noticed that the House version of the bill accidentally left out language requiring a party petition to include at least 500 signatures from each of half the U.S. House districts. The story implies this is the only reason the Senate rejected the House amendments.
A conference committee will probably be appointed soon to write a final version of the bill, which almost certainly will include the distribution requirement. But the legislature isn’t expected to be in session until November 6, so the bill can’t pass the legislature until that day, unless there is an unexpected schedule change.
Assuming the House amendments (other than the accidental dropping of the distribution requirement) are part of the final bill, the provision that requires 10,000 signatures for 2014 (but approximately 28,000 in future election years) will make it more difficult to challenge the bill’s application to the 2014 election on due process grounds. However, the bill still has a constitutional problem concerning the wording of the petition. Nine federal courts, including the Sixth Circuit, have struck down wording on party petitions that implies the signers support the party, or are organizing it, or that they intend to vote for the candidates listed on the petition. Yet the bill doesn’t correct the existing law, which forces signers to say that they themselves are organizing the party. It is conceivable that the legislature will notice this problem and correct it in the conference committee.
