Ohio has been holding presidential primary elections every presidential election year starting in 1912. However, no party other than the Democratic or Republican Parties has ever had a presidential primary in Ohio. The Ohio election law says the presidential primary is mandatory for parties that polled at least 20% for Governor in the preceding election, but other qualified parties may have a presidential primary if they wish. However, no qualified minor party in Ohio has ever asked for one.

This year, the Green Party, which is ballot-qualified, expects to hold an Ohio presidential primary. Candidates who wish to be on the party’s primary ballot need to come up with a slate of delegates and then collect 500 signatures for the presidential candidate/delegate slate. Jill Stein, who is seeking the Green Party’s presidential nomination, expects to obtain a place on the party’s Ohio presidential primary.

The Ohio presidential primary is June 12, and the Green Party national convention is July 13-15.

It is not likely that any of Ohio’s other qualified minor parties will ask for a presidential primary. The Socialist Party has already nominated its candidate. The Constitution and Libertarian Parties scheduled their national conventions ahead of the date of the Ohio presidential primary. And Americans Elect prefers not to use any of its government-provided presidential primaries. Thanks to Ben Manski for this news.

Rhodes Cook has this lengthy analysis, pointing out that it is not too late for a new Republican presidential candidate to emerge. Cook is well-positioned to write this article. He is the editor of The Rhodes Cook Letter, a quarterly publication that analyzes election returns, polling data, straw polls, for presidential, gubernatorial and congressional races. Also he is the author of America Votes, a massive book of election returns that appears every two years, and which has been coming out since 1956. Thanks to Political Wire for the link.

Law Professor Rick Hasen, whose blog is ElectionLawBlog.org, sometimes allows guest posters. Here is a link to a guest post by Professor Darry Sragow, which is fairly lengthy, and which defends Americans Elect against various criticisms made by Hasen himself, and others, of Americans Elect.

One minor criticism of the Sragow article is that implies that California requires 1,030,080 valid signatures to qualify a new party. The piece is referring to the California procedure that says if a new party wishes to qualify by petition, it needs the signatures of voters equal to 10% of the last gubernatorial vote. But California does not require new parties to qualify by petition; instead they may qualify if they persuade 103,008 voters to fill out voter registration cards, listing themselves as members of the new group. Both choices are far too difficult, but it is not strictly accurate to say that California requires over 1,000,000 signatures. If the only method for a new party to get on the California ballot were a petition of 10%, then the California law would be unconstitutional. All mandatory ballot access requirements for new parties, and for independent candidates, in excess of 5% of the number of registered voters, have long ago been held unconstitutional. Such cases have been won in Arkansas, Illinois, North Carolina, and Ohio.