Text of letter mailed on Monday to:

-Governor Mike DeWine
-Secretary of State Frank LaRose
-Ohio Speaker of the House, Larry Householder
-House Minority Leader, Emilia Strong Sykes
-Ohio Senate President, Larry Obhof
-Ohio Senate Minority Leader, Kenny Yuko

Honorable Governor DeWine,

My name is Nathaniel Lane, and I am writing today as Chair of The Ohio Green Party. Let me open this letter by thanking you for your leadership during this time of crisis. I am grateful to have a Governor who is relying upon science and not politics when making decisions regarding this public health emergency. I am reaching out today to discuss an additional crisis presented to us as a result of said emergency, and to plea for relief from your office.

In the 2018 election, the Ohio Green Party put forward a record number of candidates, had a record number of registered members, and a record number of active county organizations. Since we had gained official party status in 2008 via the courts, we had seen growth in our registration numbers in every single primary election leading up to the 2018 election. During the 2016 and 2018 elections respectively we saw our number of registered members nearly DOUBLE in both elections. When we lost ballot status in the November 2018 election due to missing the 3% threshold set for the Governor's race, the Ohio Green Party immediately began preparing to regain ballot status via the petition process for the 2020 election cycle.

We were actively circulating petitions when the outbreak of COVID-19 in our state and in our nation rapidly made it apparent to us that petition circulation would have to cease out of concern for public safety and the safety of our petitioners. As a result, on March 17th, 2020 we halted all circulation of petitions, and we do not expect to be able to resume such activities with any ease under the current and upcoming restrictions on public gatherings that have been put in place. As such, our options to have our candidates appear on the ballot are extremely limited and not likely to yield us much success.

Our attempts to address this issue have so far been rebuffed. Your office and the Secretary of State's office gave conflicting statements about how to proceed with our efforts. After over a week's delay, the Secretary of State's office finally told us to "seek a legislative remedy” to our dilemma. However, the Legislature is closed indefinitely, and so far no Legislator has responded to any of our attempts to contact them. The Green Party of the United States has announced lawsuits have been filed in Illinois and Georgia to stop Democratic and Republican run boards of elections from exploiting COVID-19, social distancing and shelter-in-place guidelines to prevent the Green Party from gathering petition signatures for candidates.

The Green Party has been appealing to governors across the nation for emergency ballot access relief for candidates in the interest of public health and safety. Lawsuits in more states are being explored if officials do not respond. Our constitutional right to participate in elections should not be violated by this pandemic without a good faith effort to allow us a chance to be recognized via an alternate method than petitioning and endangering public safety. Our deadlines are fast approaching, and the window to a more open democracy in Ohio appears to be closing.

We are not seeking an exception to your stay at home order, nor do we wish for you to allow for large public gatherings until the time has come when it is safe to do so. We do not wish to endanger our petitioners or the general public by going door to door to collect signatures either. As such, we are asking for you to establish a waiver or other procedure that will allow Green Party candidates to appear on the fall ballot without depending on gathering petition signatures that would endanger public health and safety.

My plea is that you will heed our calls for a more open democracy, and I thank you again for your leadership in these uncertain times. Given the urgency of the approaching deadlines we are facing, we must respectfully request an immediate response to this petition or we will be forced to seek redress in the courts.

Sincerely,

Nathaniel David Lane

Chair of The Ohio Green Party