LaRose removes Libertarian from U.S. Senate primary ballot

Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose has removed one of the two Libertarian candidates running for U.S. Senate, effectively shutting down what was supposed to be a rare Libertarian statewide primary. LaRose announced Thursday that he's removed Jeffrey Kanter from the May 5 primary ballot as a Libertarian candidate for the U.S. Senate. That leaves William B. Redpath as the only Libertarian candidate. "Boards of elections have been informed that Mr. Kanter is no longer a certified candidate for the May 5, 2026, primary election and have been instructed to provide notice on all ballots that any votes cast for this candidate will not be counted," according to a news release from LaRose's office. The Senate race also features the Republican incumbent, Jon Husted, and two Democrats: former Sen. Sherrod Brown and Ron Kincaid. Kristen Wichers, a Libertarian activist, filed a protest to Kanter's candidacy and offered evidence that some of Kanter's signatures were invalid. Kanter did not show up for a March 12 hearing on the matter. The hearing officer, Sarah Huffman, sided with Wichers on many of the points the challenger raised and ruled that 216 of Kanter's signatures should be removed, leaving him short of the 500 signatures needed to qualify for the ballot. Huffman's ruling noted that some of the invalid signatures were collected by registered Republicans. "While I'm stopping short of alleging a formal conspiracy, it is hard to ignore Florida-based Republican operatives running a signature drive for a Libertarian primary," Wichers said. "It raises obvious concerns about meddling. If the Republican Party disagrees with that assessment, they are welcome to step forward and condemn this fraud." In an earlier interview with the Register, Wichers said that while Redpath is well known to Ohio Libertarians, nobody seemed to know who Kanter is and said Kanter was hard to contact. The Register attempted to seek comment from Kanter for a previous article, but Kanter did not respond.