Top Republican state officials are appealing a federal judge’s preliminary injunction against a GOP-backed law that would have made it more difficult for minor parties to get on the 2014 ballot. Attorney General Mike DeWine filed a notice of appeal with the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals yesterday. On Tuesday, U.S. District Court Judge Michael H. Watson placed on hold the law, which would have blocked all minor parties from having a primary on May 6 and significantly raised the number of signatures needed for a minor-party candidate to reach the ballot.
Senate Bill 193 was dubbed by critics as the John Kasich Re-election Protection Act because it would presumably place in doubt the gubernatorial candidacy of Libertarian Charlie Earl, whom could siphon conservative voters away from Kasich this fall.
Libertarians filed a lawsuit to stop the law. Secretary of State Jon Husted is a party to DeWine’s appeal, and a spokesman for Kasich said there was “a universal agreement that we should appeal.”
“He (Kasich) isn’t scared of me, he’s scared of the 6 to 10 percent of the vote I’ll get in November,” Earl said.
Full Article: GOP appeals election-law injunction | The Columbus Dispatch.