A Libertarian candidate for U.S. Senate who faces accusations that his campaign may be a political ploy failed to appear Thursday at a state hearing that could determine whether he remains on the ballot.
Jeffrey Kanter had been subpoenaed to testify at a hearing at the Ohio Secretary of State’s Office in Columbus, where state officials are reviewing a protest seeking to remove him from the Libertarian primary ballot for the May 5 election.
Kanter did not attend the hearing and did not send a representative. That left only a lawyer representing the protester to present arguments.
The protest was filed by Kristen Wichers, a Libertarian Party activist who believes Kanter may be a Republican-backed proxy candidate meant to interfere with the Libertarian nomination. Libertarians worry such a candidate could prevent their preferred contender, William Redpath, from appearing on the November ballot.
The dispute could influence a race with national implications. Ohio’s U.S. Senate election also features Republican Sen. Jon Husted and Democratic former Sen. Sherrod Brown.
If the race ends up being close, the presence of a Libertarian candidate could serve as a spoiler, because the party sometimes attracts conservative-leaning voters. Democrats’ long-shot path to retaking control of the U.S. Senate involves winning in Ohio and other Republican-leaning states.
Kanter, a health care consultant from the Cleveland area, meanwhile, has run an unusually low-profile campaign.
He has no campaign website, has not registered a federal campaign committee and has not since filing to run in early February.
If Kanter were to win the Libertarian primary in May, he could later withdraw from the race after a mid-August deadline — potentially leaving the party without a Senate candidate in the general election.
More about the challenge
Wichers’ protest asks Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, a Republican, to invalidate enough petition signatures to disqualify Kanter from the ballot.
Kanter submitted 609 signatures with his candidacy paperwork. Under Ohio law, he must have at least 500 valid signatures to qualify.
The protest challenges 255 signatures on several grounds, including:
- 33 signatures allegedly collected by an Ohio man with a recent election fraud conviction, which the complaint argues makes them automatically invalid
- 157 signatures gathered by two petition circulators from Miami, Florida, who are registered Republicans. The protest argues they shouldn’t count since Ohio law requires circulators to be affiliated with the same party as the candidate they’re helping
- 79 signatures that the complaint says do not match signatures in the state’s voter file
- 13 signatures tied to petitions where a circulator incorrectly filled out a required address form
Political consultant with Republican ties hired petition workers
Because Kanter did not appear at the hearing, he could not be questioned about his campaign or how the signatures were gathered.
But testimony at the hearing did shed some light on the effort to collect them.
Marcus McGovern, of Toledo, whom Wichers called as a witness, testified that he circulated candidate petitions for Kanter after responding to a Facebook job posting offering $9 per signature.
The job was posted by Elias Alvarez, a Miami-based political consultant whose website advertises petition circulation services.
“He stated to me that he had part of the contract for the signature gathering,” McGovern said. “He wanted to see if I was able to work for him.”
McGovern said he had prior experience circulating petitions and agreed to help. He ultimately submitted 140 signatures, which would have earned him $1,260.
Under questioning from Wichers’ attorney, Joshua Engel, McGovern said he never met Kanter and did not know how much Alvarez had been paid.
Wichers submitted as evidence voter files from Florida that show Alvarez is a registered Republican there — this is why Wichers’ protest seeks to invalidate signatures that Alvarez and another Miami resident named Daniel Alvarez personally helped collect.
The protest says the pair committed election fraud when they filled out a state form stating they were affiliated with “no party” on the petitions they turned in.
Elias Alvarez is the co-founder of Pinnacle Partners Management, a political consulting company in Miami. The company’s website says it offers “end-to-end field operations, from canvassing and signature gathering to messaging and phone outreach.”
It’s not clear that the company, which was founded a year ago, specializes in helping Republicans, although Elias Alvarez’s LinkedIn profile says he previously served as a canvasser for a former Republican Florida state representative.
Signal Statewide has left a message with Pinnacle Partners Management seeking comment for this story.
Wichers said McGovern’s testimony reinforced her suspicions about who might be behind the campaign.
“That’s kind of what we figured,” she said.
What happens next
Sarah Huffman, a lawyer who until recently worked in LaRose’s office, served as the hearing officer in Thursday’s hearing, sort of the equivalent of a judge.
Huffman said at the end of the hearing that she will put together a report with recommendations on whether to grant the request to reject some or all of the signatures. She said she realizes “time is of the essence.”
Huffman’s report then would be reviewed by LaRose, who will make the final decision.
A de facto deadline for a decision is coming up soon. Absentee voting for military members and other overseas Ohioans starts on March 20, so the date also typically serves as a deadline by which ballots must be finalized.