For Immediate Release Wednesday, August 17, 2016
On target to be on the ballot in all 50 states and DC
Alexandria – The Libertarian Party’s candidate for president, Gary Johnson, has cleared more hurdles to be on the ballot in Ohio and New York and is on track for ballot access in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
The final step for ballot access in New York was completed when the time frame for specific objections to the petitions turned in by the Libertarian Party of New York ran out.
In Ohio, the Secretary of State raised the question that it might not be legally allowable to substitute Gary Johnson’s name for the ‘stand-in’ candidate filed before he was the party’s official nominee. The final ruling from the Ohio Secretary of State came August 15 in the Party’s favor.
The substitution process had been done several times without incident or question in the past. And, the timelines involved leave little choice but to use stand-in candidates for filing purposes. The filing deadline for independent candidates in Ohio was March 14 th . The party’s nominating convention at which the presidential candidate was chosen was May 27. This process is also common in other states with similar filing deadline restraints.
The final hurdle is verification of 12,000 signatures petitioners have collected. Should 5,000 of those be deemed valid, Gary Johnson will be on the Ohio ballot in November as an independent candidate – independent because Ohio raised its ballot access standards in 2013, causing the Libertarian Party to lose state recognition.
LNC Ballot Access Committee Chair Ken Moellman, Jr. is confident this threshold will be reached, stating ‘I worked closely with LP Ohio volunteers to validate signatures as they came in. We know that we submitted over 6,500 valid signatures. I’m honored to have worked with so many great activists in Ohio who all helped put a great candidate on the ballot in Ohio.”
As of this writing, the Libertarian Party is confirmed for ballot access in 40 states and is on track for all 50 plus the District of Columbia.
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