Winners from the November election have been moving ahead toward the offices they’ll occupy in January. But the Ohio Green Party is prepared to lose a lot when the vote is certified next month.
The Green Party ticket for governor – Constance Gadell-Newton and Brett Joseph – got just over 1 percent of the vote. A law passed in 2013 says it needed to get 3 percent to retain its minor party status.
Green Party political director Joseph DeMare says his party was shut out of debates, which he thinks would have helped it get to that threshold. He says the party may consider a lawsuit, but right now is preparing to comply with the law so it can come back in 2020.
“It’s a long shot. We are going to try it – we’re going to try every avenue,” DeMare says. “But it looks like – what we’re planning right now is that we’re going to be forced to gather 90,000 petition signatures.”
The Libertarian Party of Ohio, which got just under 2 percent, says that minor party law doesn’t apply to them and has said the party will sue if its status is stripped.