The Georgia Supreme Court declared on Wednesday that presidential candidates Cornel West and Claudia De la Cruz are ineligible to be on the state’s ballots, making any votes cast for them invalid. The court’s ruling came after it was determined that West and De la Cruz did not meet the qualification requirements. In Georgia, each presidential elector must submit a separate petition with 7,500 signatures to appear on the ballot. However, only one petition per candidate was submitted, as per the guidelines set by the secretary of state.
The challenge to West and De la Cruz’s positions on the ballot was initiated by Democrats who were concerned about potential votes being diverted from Vice President Kamala Harris. Despite qualifying as independents in Georgia, De la Cruz is actually the nominee of the Party for Socialism and Liberation. Both West and De la Cruz have not responded to requests for comments regarding the court’s decision.
Although their names will still be listed on Georgia’s ballots, votes for West and De la Cruz will not be counted, according to Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s spokesperson, Robert Sinners. Due to logistical constraints such as the unavailability of enough watermarked security paper and concerns about reprogramming voting machines, it is not feasible to reprint the ballots at this stage. Raffensperger plans to issue notices at polling places and with mailed-out ballots informing voters that votes for the disqualified candidates will not be counted.
As a result of the disqualifications, Georgia voters will have a choice of four presidential candidates – Harris for the Democrats, Donald Trump for the Republicans, Chase Oliver for the Libertarians, and Jill Stein for the Green Party. This is the largest number of presidential candidates to appear on the Georgia ballot since 2000. Justice Sarah Warren, writing for the unanimous court, upheld the decisions of lower court judges who overturned Raffensperger’s initial rulings to qualify West and De la Cruz.
The court’s decision was based on the fact that neither West’s nor De la Cruz’s electors filed valid nomination petitions. The argument that every elector should have to file petitions, totaling 120,000 signatures in this case, was rejected by the justices. The ruling also stated that no constitutional challenge to the current statutory scheme for qualifying independent presidential candidates is applicable in this instance.
With the court ruling that no elector submitted a valid petition, the potential for an appeal in federal court on constitutional grounds is uncertain, as per lawyer Bryan Tyson, who represented West. Democrats in several states, including Georgia, have been challenging third-party and independent candidates to prevent them from detracting votes from their candidates following President Biden’s narrow victory in the state in 2020. On the other hand, Republicans in Georgia have been advocating to keep all candidates on the ballot and have supported liberal third-party contenders in battleground states, resulting in a significant legal battle in Georgia surrounding the eligibility of various candidates.