O'Malley Fails to Make Ohio Ballot

ANNAPOLIS, MD — Former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, whose bid for the Democratic presidential nomination has failed to win a sizable percentage of his party’s voters, learned Thursday that he will not be on the Ohio primary ballot.

The Associated Press first reported that O’Malley fell short of the 1,000 signatures needed to be on the ballot in the March 15 election.

While the campaign submitted 1,175 signatures to Ohio election officials, only 772 of those were approved by the state. The deadline to be on the ballot was Dec. 16.
“While this news is disappointing, we are exploring all of our options, and Gov. O’Malley will campaign vigorously in Ohio,” spokeswoman Haley Morris told the AP.

The former governor is on the ballot in 18 other states.

But Ohio’s 18 electoral votes are up for grabs with nearly an equal number of registered Democrats and Republicans in the state. That makes it attractive for every candidate; President Obama and GOP nominee Mitt Romney stopped in Ohio a total of 73 times during the 2012 campaign, says WBNS.

The latest Des Moines Register Iowa Poll from mid-December shows just 4 percent of likely Democratic caucus participants say O’Malley is their first choice on Feb. 1. Contrast that with 48 percent of likely Democratic participants supporting former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and 37 percent picking Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.

O’Malley stumped in frigid Iowa this week, where voters like his message, but seem to think Clinton has the strongest chance against Donald Trump or whoever might be the eventual Republican nominee.

On Monday, only one Iowan braved a snowstorm to meet O’Malley at a campaign stop. While that voter said he liked the former Maryland governor’s positions, he still isn’t sure who he’ll support on caucus night.

O’Malley chatted for an hour with the potential voter identified by political reporters only as Kenneth. The Democratic contender touted his record in Maryland taking in young refugees from Central America, who were helped by faith communities and foster families.

According to a blog post by reporter Sarah Beckman, Kenneth shared his concerns about the incarceration rate. That let O’Malley talk about his experience with restorative justice, connecting prisoners with family and ministers before their release.

“As governor, I got down our incarceration rate to 20 year lows, and I reduced our recidivism rate by 15 percent,” O’Malley told the Iowan. “We did a lot of good stuff with re-entry, with restorative justice, having our inmates work on different stuff that connected them to the real world.”

“On paper, if I were to look at just the resumes, you would have the strongest resume in my mind,” the likely caucus-goer told O’Malley.