On Wednesday, a Georgia state court judge ruled that independent presidential candidate Cornel West would be disqualified from running for president in the state due to improper paperwork filed by West’s electors. As a result, votes for West in Georgia will not be counted, although his name will still appear on the ballots because it was deemed too late to remove it. Judge Thomas A. Cox of Fulton County Superior Court decided against printing new ballots, citing the imminent mailing of military and overseas ballots, and ordered notices to be posted at polling places informing voters of West’s disqualification.
Another decision expected to be made on Wednesday was regarding whether Claudia De la Cruz would be allowed to remain on the Georgia ballots. The Party of Socialism and Liberation nominee qualified for the Georgia ballot as an independent, but Democrats argued for her exclusion under the same reasoning applied to West. Apart from De la Cruz, Georgia voters will have presidential options including Republican Donald Trump, Democrat Kamala Harris, Libertarian Chase Oliver, and Green Party nominee Jill Stein, making it the most significant number of candidates on the ballot since 1948.
The ruling marks the latest development in the ongoing saga of ballot access for independent and third-party candidates in Georgia. Despite an initial disqualification by an administrative law judge, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger overruled the decision, granting access to West and De la Cruz. Raffensperger also approved Stein’s placement on the ballots based on a new Georgia law and her qualification in other states under the Green Party. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was excluded from the ballots as he withdrew his candidacy in several states and endorsed Trump.
The Democrats challenged Raffensperger’s decisions on West, De la Cruz, and Stein, aimed at preventing candidates who could potentially draw votes from Harris, especially after Biden’s narrow victory in Georgia in 2020. However, Cox dismissed the Democratic challenge regarding Stein’s inclusion, emphasizing Raffensperger’s duty to allow qualified candidates to access the ballot. The judge concurred with the Democratic argument that one of West’s electors should have submitted a petition with the required signatures, which did not occur.
Georgia, along with other states, has seen challenges from Democrats and affiliated groups against independent and third-party candidates. Republicans in Georgia fought to maintain all candidates on the ballot, aligning with a broader Republican strategy in battleground states to promote left-leaning third-party candidates like West and Stein to potentially impact Harris’s chances. The funding source for the efforts remains unclear, but they could influence states decided by slim margins in the previous election.
