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.
