On May 15, Ohio Governor John Kasich signed SB 295, which repeals the 2011 omnibus election law bill, except for one provision that eliminates early voting on the three days before election day. See this story. As a result of the bill becoming law, the petition deadline for newly-qualifying parties reverts to November of the year before the election (in presidential election years), the same deadline held unconstitutional in 2006 by the Sixth Circuit.
Oregon held primaries for the Democratic and Republican Parties on May 15. No Republican appeared on the primary ballot for either Treasurer or Attorney General. However, write-in candidates campaigned for the nominations. Although the write-ins aren’t tallied yet, the unofficial figures show a large number of write-ins cast in the Republican primary for both those offices.
As of 7 a.m. Pacific time, the Secretary of State’s election returns web page shows 17,490 write-ins for Attorney General, and 16,523 for Treasurer. Those numbers will increase. Here is a link to the returns.
Ohio law requires a write-in candidate for statewide office in a small party’s primary to poll 500 write-ins, in order to get the nomination. It isn’t enough for the candidate to outpoll any opponents. This blog reported on March 28 that the Ohio Libertarian Party candidate for U.S. Senate, John Fockler, had polled more than 500 write-ins in the Libertarian primary on March 6, for U.S. Senate.
However, official returns announced on May 3 show that he only polled 337, not enough to have his name on the November ballot. The unofficial returns on election night had showed he had 407 write-ins, with some counties unable to provide a write-in tally. Later, on March 28, Ohio elections officials had said it appeared he had between 700 and 800, but that turned out not to be true.
It is likely that the unofficial election returns on election night were not the total for Fockler, but the number of all write-ins cast for U.S. Senate in the Libertarian primary, including the names of people who had not filed as a declared write-in. The official tally does not mention how many voters cast a write-in for someone who wasn’t a declared write-in candidate.
The Green Party actually had more write-ins for U.S. Senate in its primary, although no Green got enough write-in votes either. Joseph DeMare got 324 write-ins, and his opponent Anita Rios got 74, for a total of 398 write-ins for a declared write-in candidate for U.S. Senate in the Green Party primary.
Libertarians will have eight nominees for U.S. House on the November ballot in November, and Greens will have three. All of the Libertarian and Green nominees for U.S. House had their names printed on their own party’s primary ballot, except that one Libertarian was a primary write-in candidate and polled exactly 25 write-ins, the bare minimum needed for the nomination. The write-in candidate who got enough votes for U.S. House is Chris Kalla in the 4th district.
WPDE-TV has this story about the attempts by some of the Democratic and Republican Party candidates who were kept off primary ballots to petition their way onto the November ballot as independent candidates. The film features one such candidate going door-to-door. The story says after the candidate’s first 30 minutes, he had gathered 3 signatures and had 957 to go.
As noted in earlier posts about the South Carolina ballot access snafu, South Carolina is tied for having the most difficult independent candidate petition requirements in the nation, for legislature and county partisan office. For those offices, the law requires 5% of the number of registered voters. South Carolina has never had an independent candidate on the ballot for U.S. House, even though the U.S. House requirement is capped at 10,000, which means the requirement is approximately 2.7% for U.S. House. Nor has South Carolina ever had an independent candidate on the ballot for statewide office, other than president. The statewide independent petition is also capped at 10,000.
Although the law is unclear, there is a plausible reason to believe that South Carolina’s ballot-qualified minor parties could nominate some of these candidates if they wish to. South Carolina’s ballot-qualified minor parties all nominate by convention, not primary.
On May 15, Nebraska held a presidential primary for the Democratic, Republican, and Libertarian Parties. Here is a link to the unofficial results, via the Secretary of State’s web page. Gary Johnson won the Libertarian primary and Roger Gary placed second. UPDATE: later returns show Lee Wrights in second place. Thanks to the commenters who pointed this out.
