Source: Ballot Access News

Here is the 32-page rebuttal brief of the Ohio legislature, in Libertarian Party of Ohio v Husted, 11-4066, now pending in the 6th circuit. The Ohio legislature is trying to persuade the 6th circuit that U.S. District Court Judge Algenon Marbley’s September 7, 2011 order was improper. That order put the Libertarian Party on the ballot in Ohio for the 2012 election.

The Ohio legislature’s rebuttal brief is mostly about procedural issues, and only a small part of the brief attempts to defend the existing Ohio ballot access law, which has a petition deadline for new and minor parties of November of the year before the election. That is the same deadline that was held unconstitutional in 2006 in the 6th circuit. Although the legislature passed a bill in 2011 to change the petition deadline from four months before the primary to three months before the primary, that bill is not in effect because it is subject to a referendum petition.

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