Opinion ID: 4552895
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Ohio’s Ballot-Access Laws

Text: Two of the plaintiffs in this case—Howard “Howie” Hawkins and Dario Hunter—seek to qualify to run as independent candidates for President of the United States in the November 2020 election. To do so, Ohio law requires them to file with the Ohio Secretary of State a nominating petition with no fewer than 5,000 signatures of qualified Ohio electors by August 5, 2020. See Ohio Rev. Code § 3513.257. The signatures must be signed in ink next to the voter’s name. Ohio Rev. Code §§ 3501.011(A), 3501.38(B). Each individual circulating petitions for an independent candidate must also sign a statement stating that they witnessed the signature. Ohio Rev. Code § 3501.38(E). The upshot of these two requirements is that each signature must be collected and witnessed in person. Another set of plaintiffs—Joseph R. DeMare, Nathaniel Lane, Brett Joseph, Becca Calhoun, and Anita Rios—seek to gather signatures for two purposes: to nominate candidates for the November 2020 election and to form the Green Party as a minor political party under Ohio law. To attain that status, the Green Party must file a party formation petition with the Ohio Secretary of State by June 30, 2020. See Ohio Rev. Code § 3517.012(A). The petition must include signatures from registered voters equal in number to at least one percent of the total vote in the 2018 Ohio gubernatorial election. See Ohio Rev. Code § 3517.01(A)(1)(b)(i). As with the individual candidate petitions, those signatures must be collected in person. Ohio Rev. Code § 3517.012; see also Ohio Rev. Code § 3513.257. No. 20-3717 Hawkins, et al. v. DeWine, et al. Page 3 Plaintiffs allege that their signature collection efforts were ongoing until the beginning of the pandemic. But the Complaint contains no allegations as to how many signatures had been collected before their efforts halted or whether any efforts to collect signatures have continued since the pandemic’s onset.