An administrative law judge is set to decide whether Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein’s name will appear on Georgia ballots in November following challenges by the Democratic Party.
Stein’s application seeks to use a new Georgia law that allows a political party to get on the state ballot if the party is on the ballot in at least 20 other states. Democrats say Stein’s application, filed by the Georgia Green Party, is invalid because the Georgia branch is not affiliated with the national Green Party.
“There is no other state in which the Georgia Green Party has qualified to be on the ballot,” Democratic Party attorney Sachin Varghese told Chief Judge Michael Malihi in a hearing Thursday. “On that basis alone, they’re done.”
Attorney Craig Webster, representing the Georgia Green Party, pushed back, urging Malihi to postpone a decision until Stein’s ballot access filings are submitted by the Friday deadline established by Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.
“It’s just too early. The secretary of state may receive that affidavit tomorrow and say, ‘I think it’s fine, we’re going to put you on the ballot,’ ” Webster said at the hearing. “We don’t know because the deadline is not here yet.”
The secretary of state’s office is awaiting issued findings from Malihi before making a final ruling, a secretary of state spokesperson said.
The legal challenges filed last month by the Democratic National Committee and the state Democratic Party are part of a national push to keep Stein and three other independent and third-party candidates from sapping votes in battleground states.
Fewer than 12,000 votes decided the 2020 election in Georgia. The challenges signal the Democratic belief that Stein and other candidates could tip the balance in Georgia in Trump’s favor. Meanwhile, the Georgia Republican Party is backing Stein’s efforts for the same reason, political observers say.
The battle over Stein’s petition comes amid Friday’s announcement by independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. that he was suspending his campaign and endorsing Trump. Kennedy, speaking at a press conference in Phoenix, said he would remove his name from ballots in toss-up states such as Georgia to avoid playing a spoiler role for Harris.
In a hearing Monday, Malihi heard from lawyers for Kennedy and Socialist candidate Claudia De la Cruz. The judge is also set to decide two challenges over whether independent candidate Cornel West collected enough valid signatures to qualify for the state ballot.
Before this year, Georgia law required independent and third-party candidates to collect a minimum of 7,500 petition signatures from registered voters to land ballot access, which three of the four challenged candidates cleared.
Attorney Adam Sparks, representing a challenge supported by the Democratic-aligned super PAC Clear Choice Action, told the judge that political analysts spotted enough formatting errors among the 8,075 signatures that the secretary of state’s office accepted that West’s campaign failed to comply with Georgia law.
Sparks also said West should be blocked from the state ballot for his illegitimate status as an independent candidate, considering his effort to affiliate with various parties to secure access across the country.
“His own Justice For All party has a nationwide reach, and I’m sure there are other states on which he’s seeking access as we speak here,” Sparks told Malihi. “It’s just nonsensical to call Dr. West an independent, affiliated as he is with this nationwide cohort of electors seeking his victory in public office. It’s the definition of a political organization.”
Malihi said he hopes to have a decision for all four cases by the end of next week. Findings must be made before absentee ballots are mailed out to Georgians overseas and in the military by mid-September.
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