ohio-supreme-court

The Ohio Supreme Court held that Secretary of State Jon Husted was correct to reject efforts by the Libertarian Party to use presidential candidate Gary Johnson's vote totals from November's election as means to get the party's name to appear by candidates on future ballots.

(cleveland.com file)

COLUMBUS, Ohio - The Ohio Supreme Court on Friday rejected a complaint from members of Ohio's Libertarian Party that Secretary of State Jon Husted improperly decided to keep the party's designation from appearing on future ballots.

In a 6-1 ruling, the court held that Husted was correct when he asserted Libertarians could not use the vote totals from Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson, who got 3.17 percent of the vote in November's election, as means to get the party's name to appear with candidates' names.

You can read the court's opinion below. Mobile users click here.

Ohio law requires parties reach a threshold of 3 percent to be allowed to have their affiliation listed with candidates. Husted said no because Johnson ran as an independent candidate on November's ballot.

Members of the Libertarian Party sued in December in an attempt to overturn Husted's decision.

But in its ruling, the Supreme Court said that ballot performance would only have helped the Libertarian Party if the candidates had actually appeared as Libertarian candidates. But since the Libertarians were not recognized as a valid party entering the election, that was not possible.

Ohio laws governing elections and political parties "make clear that a political group cannot obtain recognized political-party status based on votes obtained by independent candidates," the court said.

"As Husted notes, the 3 percent vote required for a group to 'remain' a political party must be received by the 'political party's candidate,' as specified in [state law," the court said. "The Libertarian's] candidates could not be the 'political party's candidate[s]' because they were nominated and appeared on the ballot as independent candidates, unaffiliated with any political party."

The dispute arose after the state changed the ballot-access rules passed by Ohio lawmakers ahead of the 2014 general election - rules that caused the Libertarian Party of Ohio to lose its minor-party status.

Chief Justice Maureen O'Connor and Justices Terrence O'Donnell, Patrick Fischer and R. Patrick DeWine joined in the opinion. Justices Sharon Kennedy and Judith French concurred in the judgment.

Justice William O'Neill dissented.

The Libertarians, he wrote, want recognition to participate in Ohio's 2017 primary election and beyond, while Husted is opposed because their presidential ticket did not appear as Librertarians on the ballot.

"That is, at best, circular reasoning. It would not have been possible for Gary Johnson and Bill Weld to run as the candidates of the Libertarian Party as there was no such party recognized by the state of Ohio," O'Neill wrote. "Political parties have to start somewhere. Relators followed the rules that define what constitutes a political party, and now the state's chief elections officer asks this court to twist those rules around to keep the seeds of democracy from sprouting."

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