There are 10 major political party candidates in the five executive office races – nine of them have appeared on this show in the last few weeks. But there are some minor or third-party candidates on the ballot too - including the Green Party's ticket for governor and lieutenant governor. They are Anita Rios, a Latina, labor and women’s rights activist, and Bob Fitrakis, a Columbus area professor and lawyer. They’re running again as a team after getting a little over 1% of the vote in 2006, with Fitrakis as the candidate for governor and Rios his running mate.
There are seven candidates from the Libertarian Party of Ohio in the 99 Ohio House races, but there are no Libertarian candidates in the race for governor – Charlie Earl was tossed from the ballot in March by Republican Secretary of State Jon Husted, who said paid signature gatherers broke the law by not disclosing who employed them. Attorney General candidate Steven Linnabary was removed too. But Libertarian Bob Bridges remains in the race for auditor, and the party’s executive director Kevin Knedler is running for Secretary of State.
And also, a note – we’ll be doing live coverage of election night results on many of Ohio’s public television stations and at the Ohio Channel starting at 10pm on Tuesday, November 4.