O’Malley misses deadline to be write-in candidate in Ohio

Martin O’Malley will not be on the Democratic presidential ballot in Ohio after missing a deadline to qualify this week. 

The former Maryland governor was seeking to be a write-in candidate after he initially failed to get enough signatures to have his name appear on the ballot.

But his campaign missed the Monday afternoon deadline to submit the write-in paperwork, the spokesman for Ohio’s Secretary of State confirmed to The Hill. 

“The window for inclusion on the primary election ballot is now closed, per state law,” Joshua Eck said in an email. 

The deadline to submit that paperwork was Monday at 4 p.m., but the office did not receive it until Tuesday at 8 a.m., the secretary’s office informed the campaign. 

The Associated Press first reported the missed deadline.

O’Malley had hoped to qualify for the ballot the conventional way, submitting 1,000 signatures by a December deadline. But while the campaign turned in 1,175, the secretary of state’s office found that only 772 were valid.

Both Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), his chief rivals for the Democratic nomination, met that requirement, as did Roque “Rocky” De La Fuente.