ATLANTA — Two state court judges in Georgia have disqualified presidential candidates Cornel West and Claudia De la Cruz from appearing on the state's ballot for the 2024 election.
According to AP News, the judges ruled that the candidates' electors failed to file the proper paperwork required by state law. This decision means that votes for West and De la Cruz will not be counted in Georgia, even if their names remain on the ballots due to the late timing of the ruling.
Fulton County Superior Court Judges Thomas A. Cox Jr. and Emily Richardson issued orders for the state to post notices at polling places informing voters of the disqualifications. The judges also stated that any votes cast for these candidates would be considered void if their names still appear on the ballot. This ruling comes just days before military and overseas ballots are scheduled to be mailed out, starting Tuesday.
West had been running as an independent candidate in Georgia, while De la Cruz was the nominee for the Party of Socialism and Liberation but had qualified for the Georgia ballot as an independent. The disqualification of these candidates narrows the field of presidential choices for Georgia voters, leaving them with options including Republican Donald Trump, Democrat Kamala Harris, Libertarian Chase Oliver, and Green Party nominee Jill Stein.
The rulings are part of a larger saga concerning ballot access for independent and third-party candidates in Georgia. Earlier, an administrative law judge had disqualified West, De la Cruz, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and the Georgia Green Party from the ballot. However, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger overruled that decision, allowing West and De la Cruz to gain access.
Raffensperger also determined that under a new Georgia law, Jill Stein should be included on the state's ballots due to the national Green Party qualifying her in at least 20 other states. Kennedy's name was kept off the ballots after he withdrew his candidacy in Georgia and several other states following the suspension of his campaign and subsequent endorsement of Trump.
Representatives for both West and De la Cruz have announced their intentions to appeal the decisions to the Georgia Supreme Court. Edwin DeJesus, speaking for the West campaign, expressed confidence in winning the appeal. Similarly, Estevan Hernandez, co-chair of De la Cruz's campaign in Georgia, criticized the ruling as negating the basic democratic rights of Georgia voters.
The Democratic Party had challenged Raffensperger's decisions on West and De la Cruz, as well as his ruling on Stein. Their efforts aimed to block candidates who might potentially draw votes away from Harris, considering Biden's narrow victory margin of fewer than 12,000 votes in Georgia during the 2020 election.
Judge Cox dismissed the Democratic challenge to Stein's inclusion, stating that Raffensperger had a clear legal duty to allow the Unified Green Party to qualify candidates for presidential elector and grant them access to the November 4, 2024, General Election ballot. He suggested that if Democrats wish to contest this issue further, they should do so before an administrative law judge.
The judges' rulings hinged on technical aspects of Georgia's ballot access laws. Judge Cox agreed with Democratic arguments that state law requires at least one of West's electors to file a petition with 7,500 signatures from registered voters in their own name. Instead, the petition was filed only in West's name. Judge Cox wrote:
While Dr. West only needed a single presidential elector to properly qualify to provide him with ballot access, none of his candidates satisfied the requirements to do so.
Judge Richardson made a similar ruling against De la Cruz, citing the same technical deficiency in the filing process. These rulings in Georgia are part of a broader national context where Democrats and allied groups have filed challenges to third-party and independent candidates in several states.
Conversely, Republicans in Georgia intervened to keep all candidates on the ballot, aligning with a larger Republican strategy across battleground states to support liberal third-party candidates like West and Stein, potentially to Harris's detriment.
The disqualification of West and De la Cruz from the Georgia ballot illustrates the complex interplay between state election laws, political strategies, and the efforts of independent and third-party candidates to gain ballot access. As the 2024 presidential election approaches, these legal battles and ballot access issues are likely to continue shaping the electoral landscape in Georgia and other key states across the nation.
