Ohio Elections Libertarians

Libertarian Party activists in Ohio carry boxes of signature petitions to the Secretary of State's Office Tuesday in Columbus in hopes of placing presidential candidate Gary Johnson on the November ballot. The party surprised state election officials by submitting signatures for a different candidate, Charlie Earl, in a move Libertarians defended as a placeholder effort because they began collecting signatures before Johnson was nominated. If certified by the state's elections chief, Libertarians plan to swap in Johnson and his running mate - but not to be listed as Libertarians on the ballot, because of a restrictive Ohio law on third-party ballot access.

(Ann Sanner, Associated Press)

Thanks to a devious law Republicans rammed through the Ohio General Assembly in 2013, Libertarian Party presidential nominee Gary Johnson will be legally considered as an independent on Ohio's ballot -- if he qualifies at all, which is not yet certain. That is, the word "Libertarian" wouldn't appear with his name.

In Tuesday's NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist poll, Johnson, the former governor of New Mexico, was polling 12 percent of Ohio's vote. To bar a candidate drawing that kind of interest from voters would speak volumes about the flaws and unfairness of Ohio's law on third-party ballot access.

That law -- Senate Bill 193 -- passed along party lines and resulted from GOP fears at the time that Ohioans unhappy with Gov. John Kasich might vote for Libertarian gubernatorial candidate Charlie Earl, maybe helping Democrat Ed FitzGerald beat Kasich.

In the end, FitzGerald's campaign was a fiasco. And Earl was ruled off 2014's ballot on a technicality about petition circulators that meant he didn't have enough valid signatures on his petitions.

But SB 193 remains on Ohio's books. And on July 29, the Cincinnati-based 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a Libertarian challenge to the law, which makes minor-party status in Ohio complex and difficult to achieve.

So the best a Libertarian can hope for, for now, is to be considered an independent, not a Libertarian, on Ohio's ballot. That will make the party less visible to voters.

And Earl is that Libertarian candidate, temporarily at least -- assuming Libertarians gathered enough valid signatures.

That's because Earl is a placeholder for Johnson. The Libertarian Party of Ohio placed Earl's name on petitions to "save the spot" for Johnson because they'd started seeking signatures before the Libertarian Party convention nominated Johnson May 29. But there may be more legal hurdles to substituting Johnson for Earl.

The candidates expected to appear on Ohio's ballot are Democrat Hillary Clinton, Republican Donald Trump and the Green Party's Jill Stein. As noted, Johnson (or Earl) will be considered an independent, if they've gathered enough valid signatures. Also seeking to make the ballot with like independent status are Darrell Castle (of the Constitution Party), Greater Clevelander Richard Duncan of Aurora and Michael Steinberg, a Californian who ran in that state's Democratic primary and drew about 11,000 votes.

If Johnson, a candidate currently drawing double-digit poll numbers in the state, is denied a place on Ohio's ballot, it's all the more reason to revisit a state law that imposes such a serious election handicap on third parties.

This editorial was updated at 11:31 am to clarify that Libertarian Party presidential nominee Gary Johnson and the other presidential candidates now seeking independent status on Ohio's ballot would not be specifically listed as independents, but would also not carry a specific party label.