Bulletins and News Discussion from September 9th to September 15th, 2024 - Viva Sandino! - COTW: Nicaragua

Two Fulton County judges disqualified independent candidates Cornel West and Claudia De la Cruz from Georgia’s presidential ballot Wednesday, rulings that narrow voters’ choices one month before early voting begins.

But it already may be too late to remove their names from ballots. Notices would be posted in polling places warning voters that West and De la Cruz have been disqualified and that votes for them wouldn’t be counted.

More than 110 of Georgia’s 159 counties already have printed ballots with the minor candidates’ names.

“It would be extremely difficult to reprint ballot(s) and remove Dr. West as an option before the election,” Fulton County Superior Court Judge Thomas Cox Jr. wrote in his decision. “This court finds that there is insufficient time to strike the candidate’s name or reprint the ballots.”

Meanwhile, a separate ruling by Cox kept Green Party candidate Jill Stein as a qualified candidate under a new state law that allows third-party candidates if they’re also on the ballot in at least 20 other states.

The bottom line for Georgia voters is there now are four candidates remaining in the race: Democrat Kamala Harris, Libertarian Chase Oliver, Stein and Republican Donald Trump.

The judges reversed decisions by Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who had sought to include West and De la Cruz among presidential candidates. Raffensperger had added them to the ballot last month, overruling a recommendation of an administrative law judge.

“Partisan activists are attempting to tilt the scales of this election, and I believe that is wrong,” Raffensperger said Thursday. “The law is clear, and these qualified candidates have a right to be on Georgia’s ballot, and I will fight for voters’ rights every day to choose the candidate for whom they want to elect.”

Raffensperger is a Republican, and his attempt to add liberal presidential candidates such as West and De la Cruz would give voters an option to pick them instead of Harris.

The two judges found both independent candidates failed to follow state laws to appear on the ballot.

Independent candidates must gather more than 7,500 signatures to qualify — both candidates did so — but state law requires those signatures to be submitted in the name of at least one of their 16 potential Georgia electors to the Electoral College. None of their presidential electors met that requirement, the judges ruled.

But that does not mean the legal battle is over, as both cases could be appealed to the Supreme Court of Georgia. Court disputes over independent candidates potentially could continue all the way until Election Day.

“We believe this ruling defies logic and expect it will be overturned on appeal,” said Edwin DeJesus, who is with the West campaign. “The conclusion reached is frankly ludicrous. The campaign remains optimistic about the end result we will achieve.”

Estevan Hernandez, co-chair of De la Cruz’s campaign in Georgia, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Thursday that the campaign plans to appeal. “This is the result of an effort by the Democratic Party to sabotage democratic rights of Georgia voters at the very moment that they say that the 2024 election is about democracy itself,” Hernandez said in a statement. “This is an example of extreme hypocrisy by the Democratic Party establishment.”

The Democratic Party of Georgia didn’t immediately comment Thursday.

The Democrat-backed legal challenges are part of a national strategy to block independent and third-party candidates from potentially siphoning votes away from Harris, which could make the difference in a close race between Harris and Trump.

Last month, Raffensperger overruled a Georgia administrative law judge and sought a presidential ballot with six names: Harris, Trump, Oliver, West, Stein and De la Cruz, the candidate of the Party for Socialism and Liberation who sought to qualify in Georgia as an independent.

Georgia voters will not see independent Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on the ballot after he withdrew from the race and endorsed Trump.

Joe Biden beat Trump by fewer than 12,000 votes in Georgia’s 2020 general election. In what’s expected to be another close race between Harris and Trump, every vote could matter.