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COLUMBUS — Democrats and Republicans are getting all the attention, but this year’s November ballot includes just as many names from third parties.
A change in ballot access requirements means 24 candidates are running in six statewide races, including a dozen minor party or write-in candidates.
Third-party candidates don’t make an impact — unless the election is close. That means this year’s governor’s race, which polls show to be tight, could turn on a showing from one of the two third-party candidates.
Joining Democrat Ted Strickland and Republican John Kasich in the governor’s race are Green Party candidate Dennis Spisak and Libertarian Ken Matesz.
Spisak says he knows he might pull votes from Strickland, but cringes when he is compared to another Green Party candidate: Ralph Nader.
In 2000, Nader ran as the Green Party candidate for president and many Democrats believe he pulled votes from Al Gore, causing him to lose to George W. Bush.
Ohio Republican Party Executive Director Jason Mauk said the third -party candidates in the race are likely to negate one another.
But Strickland campaign manager Aaron Pickrell sees it a different way.
“I think the third -party candidates pull from the challenger in this cycle because it’s more of a vote against the incumbent. And I think the Libertarian candidate in particular provides an outlet for a lot of the folks who are very frustrated with Kasich’s second amendment record and also have questions about some of his other policies,” Pickrell said.
Matesz said he expects he will get support from anti-incumbent voters who don’t like Kasich or Strickland .
The two most recent public polls following the Ohio governor’s race do not closely measure interest in voting for Spisak or Matesz. One percent of likely voters polled by Quinnipiac University voluntarily said they would vote for “someone else” and 2 percent of likely voters surveyed recently by the Ohio Poll said they would pick “other” over Kasich or Strickland.
In the six non judicial statewide races on the Nov. 2 ballot, there are 24 candidates running: six Democrats, six Republicans, five Libertarians, two Constitution Party members, one Green, one Socialist, one Independent and two write-in candidates.
Libertarians advocate for less government, lower taxes and more freedoms. The Green Party calls for a move toward an energy -efficient economy and increased participation and fairness in government, and the Constitution Party’s platform includes planks for limited federal government and restoration of American jurisprudence to its Biblical foundations. One of the main tenets of the Socialist Party is a call for social ownership and control of productive resources.
Earlier this year, Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner issued a directive that no longer requires a minor party to meet the threshold of receiving at least 5 percent of the votes in the last statewide general election to gain ballot status .
Brunner issued the directive after a 2006 federal court decision that found Ohio’s laws for minor party ballot access unconstitutional.
Brunner said the change has led to the largest number of minor party candidates in recent memory .
A third -party candidate can make a difference in a close election.
Just look at the 1974 Ohio governor’s race. As a third -party candidate, Nancy Brown Lazar siphoned off 95,625 votes, or 3 percent, and then-Gov. John Gilligan lost to Republican James Rhodes by 11,488 votes — less than one vote per precinct.
“It was a factor. I don’t know if it was a major factor,” Gilligan said. “My vote was off. We did not do the job of getting our people out.”
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