COLUMBUS, Ohio — There’s an increased effort in Ohio to require more candidates to declare a party affiliation before putting their name on the ballot.

A recently passed law requires certain judicial candidates to make that information known, and the latest proposal out of the Statehouse wants local school board members to be added to the list.

“Most voters do not pay close attention to politics,” said Justin Buchler, a political science professor at Case Western Reserve University. “Whether we are talking about the national level, the state or the local level. And that means they tend to look for cues in the simplest cue that voters tend to have is a party label.” 

Meanwhile, not everyone sees this as a benefit. Ohio Supreme Court Justice Jennifer Brunner filed a lawsuit over party labels being used in certain races. The lawsuit is centered on the new rule that requires certain judicial candidates to declare their party affiliation on the ballot. Brunner experienced the impact of party labels on the ballot first hand in 2022 when she ran against Republican Sharon Kennedy in the race for Ohio Supreme Court chief justice.

“Ohio judicial code limits what candidates for elected judicial officers can say, and that puts judicial candidates in a different more restrictive place than other candidates who are running with party labels,” said Jonathan Entin, Professor of Law at Case Western Reserve University.

The lawsuit claims party labels for these judicial candidates violate the First Amendment. But, political experts say it’s not that simple.  

“The concern becomes one of the First Amendment,” said Atiba Ellis, a Professor of Law at Case Western Reserve University. “One could, on the one hand, see that that information might be helpful to understand what a judge thinks and where they might be coming from. On the other hand, some might see this as a form of compelled speech in the sense of the government in issuing the ballot. Is labeling a candidate in a way that the candidate might not be labeled.” 

While constitutional law experts say a similar case could be made for local school board races. They also say the recent push to make more races partisan could be politically motivated.

“It’s tended to come from conservatives and republicans who have been making a big issue out of some of the things that or maybe being taught or they claim is being taught in schools or the kinds of materials that are available in school libraries,” Entin said.