Gary Johnson may not be on OH ballot

Libertarian presidential nominee Gary Johnson has been making headlines recently with a series of media appearances and campaign ads created to draw a sharp contrast between himself and the two major-party candidates.

The party listed Charlie Earl – a failed 2014 candidate for OH governor- on paperwork they say is aimed at getting Johnson on the November ballot.

“Although this process is complicated, it was the only course available for the Libertarian Party and the Johnson/Weld campaign because of the laws disingenuously passed and arbitrarily enforced by the Republican Party operatives who control Ohio’s elections”, said the party in a media release sent by its spokesman, Aaron Keith Harris, late Tuesday afternoon.

The move came as a surprise to OH secretary of state staffers who received the forms. Independent presidential candidates need 5,000 valid signatures to appear on the OH ballot. Libertarian Party activists in OH, hoping to get party nominee Gary Johnson on Ohio’s ballot, said they submitted petition signatures Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2016, for Charlie Earl, a 2014 candidate for governor, as a placeholder because they began collecting signatures before Johnson’s nomination.

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But the petitions were filed under the names Charlie Earl and Ken Moellman, the LPO said in a statement.

The fear, Earl said, is that if the Libertarians win that lawsuit and Johnson can run as a Libertarian, there will be a legal challenge if he also is trying to run as an independent.

Libertarians have fought the changes in state and federal court for years.

Richard Winger of Ballot Access News notes that the “reporters did not investigate, and simply believed the OH elections official”, who was apparently unaware that that the LP used placeholder candidates in both 1996 and 2004.

Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson may not appear on the ballot in OH in November unless an untested supporter strategy works out.

COLUMBUS, Ohio-Ohio Libertarians submitted a surprise name for president on Tuesday: ex-gubernatorial candidate Charlie Earl. The party collected signatures for Earl because the Libertarian Party’s national convention wasn’t until Memorial Day. Once certified by the state’s elections chief, Libertarians will swap in Johnson and his running mate.