On September 22, the Ohio Supreme Court voted 4-3 to put Eric Ungaro, an independent candidate for state house of representatives, on the ballot. The candidate had been removed from the ballot by the Mahoning County Board of Elections on the basis that some of his campaign material had logos and pictures that seemed to show he was sympathetic to the Democratic Party. Here is the Opinion, which says the Mahoning County Board of Elections should have held an evidentiary hearing concerning that evidence. State ex rel Ungaro v Mahoning County Board of Elections, 2022-1061.

The dissenters said the independent candidate filed his petition too late. The Ohio primary for most offices this year was in May, but for state house of representatives, a special later primary was held in August. The law says the petition is due the day before the primary. The dissenters felt therefore he should have submitted his petition in May, not August.

No state has such an arbitrary law on who can get on the ballot as an independent than Ohio does. Ohio does not have registration by party, but bans independent candidates who seem to be associated with a political party. This leads the election boards and the state courts do ponder statements by the candidate, or the candidate’s spouse, who whether the candidate spoke at certain meetings of political parties, or the content of the candidate’s advertising.

On September 21, a Republican nominee for Trumbull County (Ohio) Common Pleas Judge filed a federal lawsuit to get on the November ballot. The Republican Party county central committee chose her because this is a special election. She was then kept off the November ballot because she is a “sore loser”, but she is only a “sore loser” because she was running for a different judicial post in the May 2022 primary.

The case is Kovoor v Ohio Secretary of State, s.d., 2:22cv-3468. Unless her lawsuit succeeds, the only candidate on the November ballot will be the Democratic nominee. Here is her Complaint. The case is assigned to U.S. District Court Judge James L. Graham, a Reagan appointee.

The plaintiff, Sarah Kovoor, already lost a similar lawsuit in Ohio Supreme Court on September 19. That case was State ex rel Trumbull County Republican Central Committee v Trumbull County Board of Elections. Here is the Ohio Supreme Court decision.

On September 21, the U.S. House passed HR 8873, the “Presidential Election Reform Act”, by 229-203. All Democrats voted for it. Nine Republicans voted for it: Liz Cheney (Wyoming), Tom Rice (South Carolina), Adam Kinzinger (Illinois), Fred Upton (Michigan), John Katko (New York), Anthony Gonzalez (Ohio), Chris Jacobs (New York), Peter Meijer (Michigan), and Jaime Herrera Beutler (Washington).

None of the Republicans from the top-two states voted for it, except Congresswoma Beutler.

Here is the text.