Democrats tried but failed to bar third-party presidential candidates from the ballot in two key battleground states.
Michigan
In Michigan, the state Democratic Party, Democratic Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, and a Democratic PAC have filed motions to challenge the qualification of Cornel West, a far-left independent candidate who describes himself as a “non-Marxist socialist.”
“A decisive victory for democratic principles and voters' choice.”
On August 16, the Michigan Department of Elections, an office under Benson's, notified West that he would not appear on the ballot because of problems with his identity affidavit. DistributorWest left the item blank and did not include the proper notary.
But on Saturday, Judge James Robert Redford of the Michigan Court of Claims ruled that presidential candidates do not have to submit affidavits of identity. Associated Press Reported.
“The identity documents submitted by candidates are not a means to exclude them from the ballot,” Redford said. Written.
Redford also found that West and his running mate, Melina Abdullah, submitted more than twice the 12,000 signatures needed to appear on the ballot, and determined that more than 16,000 of those signatures were valid.
On Monday, the Michigan State Board of Elections voted 3-1 to reaffirm West's qualifications and submit the necessary signatures.
West called the ruling a “decisive victory for democratic principles and voters' choice.”
“We are grateful for this recognition and remain committed to defending the rights of all voters,” West said in a statement.
Meanwhile, Mark Brewer, an attorney for the former chairman of the Michigan Democratic Party, argued that he has already appealed West's identity affidavit to the Michigan Court of Appeals. Brewer also plans to appeal the ruling, alleging that at least some of the signatures submitted by West were forged.
The Bureau of Elections, which Benson now heads, and the Department of State also plan to appeal the identity affidavits, said department spokeswoman Angela Benander.
Wisconsin
The Wisconsin Supreme Court similarly frustrated Democrats by ruling that Green Party candidate Jill Stein will appear on the ballot in November's election.
Wisconsin Green Party co-chair Michael White told The Associated Press that the DNC's attempt to block Stein from voting was a “demonstration of fear in the Democratic Party.”
David Strange, a staffer for the Democratic National Committee, filed a complaint with the Wisconsin State Elections Commission earlier this month, arguing that Stein was ineligible to vote because the Green Party does not have any state officeholders or candidates for office who serve as presidential electors and cast official votes in the Electoral College. The New York Times Reported.
In a three-page, unsigned, unexplained decision, the court ruled against Strange, finding that “petitioners are not entitled to the relief they seek.”
Stein He welcomed the decision, calling it a “major victory in the anti-Democrat war against democracy and voters' choice.”
“This was an inevitable conclusion because the complaints were baseless to begin with and we knew it,” Michael White, co-chair of the Wisconsin Green Party, told The Associated Press, adding that the DNC's attempt to block Stein from the ballot was a “sign of fear in the Democratic Party.”
RFK Jr.
Yet another left-wing candidate, RFK Jr., who has since suspended his campaign and endorsed former Republican President Donald Trump, told Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck on Monday that Democrats have joined the legal battle and even hired “private investigators” to “attack his character” in an attempt to keep him from running in the fall election.
“They used the judicial system to remove me from the ballot, and they had to use the judicial system to remove Donald Trump from the ballot,” RFK Jr. said of Democrats. “It's all about their ironclad control over the outcome and not having faith in the people anymore.”
As leftists championing left-wing causes, Stein, 74, and West, 71, are likely to siphon votes away from Democratic candidate Kamala Harris, while RFK Jr. is expected to siphon more votes away from Trump than Harris.
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