Andrew Yang announced he will launch a write-in campaign in Ohio after a technicality forced him off the ballot in the Ohio primary, reports Newsweek.
Yang’s supporters accused the state of denying voters their first amendment rights and say they submitted three times the required signatures to get on the ballot.
Cleveland.com, however, reported his campaigned submitted those signatures without including the paperwork indicating what those voters were signing.
“The law is clear — when Ohioans sign a petition, they deserve to know what they’re signing,” Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, a Republican, said in a statement. “This is why petition forms must be submitted, complete with a statement from the candidate stating their intention to run. By their own admission, the Yang campaign failed to do that.”
Yang’s campaign called it a “bureaucratic paperwork issue caused by an awkwardly-worded law.”
The campaign, which has not yet qualified for the January Democratic presidential debate, did get some good news.
The New York Times reports the Democratic National Committee has requested that polling organizations conduct more polling ahead of the next debate on January 14.
No polls have been conducted since the last debate, yet one of the requirements is for candidate’s to have five percent support in four debates or seven percent support in two early primary states. Yang had submitted a formal request for more polling, which the DNC last week denied.
So far only five candidates have qualified for the January 14 debate in Des Moines- Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar.
“The D.N.C. will not sponsor our own debate-qualifying polls of presidential candidates during a primary, said Democratic spokeswoman, Xochitl Hinojosa. “The New York Times and the expansive list of 16 qualifying poll sponsors should conduct more independent polling.”
No word yet on whether any of those polls have agreed to do so. With less than ten days left before the debate, not much time is left to make the request relevant.
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