The Ohio Supreme Court has ruled against members of the committee that nominated the Libertarian presidential ticket of Gary Johnson and Bill Weld to last fall’s ballot, where they were listed as independent candidates.
Five different members of the committee who put Johnson and Weld on the statewide ballot wanted the Secretary of State’s office to recognize the Libertarian party as a political party on future ballots. They say that designation is deserved because the candidates got more than three percent of the vote in November 2016 election. A 2013 Ohio law says political parties can be listed on future ballots if their candidates maintain 3 percent of the vote in elections. But in this case, Johnson and Weld were nominated as independent candidates without any political party affiliation. So the Ohio Supreme Court ruled 6-1 that because the candidates weren’t nominated as Libertarians, they do not qualify to retain party ballot access.