Georgia’s highest court will hear oral arguments next week about whether minor presidential candidates Cornel West and Claudia De la Cruz should be on the November ballot, after two months of a legal back-and-forth in which the state Democratic Party has attempted to keep them off.
If the court rules in favor of West and De la Cruz, they would join presidential contenders Democrat Kamala Harris, Republican Donald Trump, Libertarian Chase Oliver and The Green Party’s nominee Jill Stein. It would be the first time since 1948 that Georgia voters could choose from six presidential candidates.
The Democrat-backed legal challenges are part of a nationwide push to keep the liberal candidates off state ballots where they could siphon votes away from Harris in a tight presidential race. President Joe Biden beat Trump by fewer than 12,000 votes in 2020′s election. In what’s expected to be a close race to the White House between Harris and Trump, a few thousand votes could determine who wins Georgia’s 16 electoral votes this time around.
Meanwhile, the Republican Party of Georgia and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger have supported the minor candidates’ ballot access.
Georgia requires presidential candidates to collect at least 7,500 signatures from votes to qualify for the ballot. West and De la Cruz cleared that hurdle, but state law requires those signatures to be submitted in the name of one of their 16 potential state electors.
When an administrative law judge ruled last month that West and De la Cruz were not properly qualified, Raffensperger overruled him and restored them to the ballot. Last week, a Fulton County Superior Court judge reversed Raffensperger, temporarily taking them off the ballot again.
The Supreme Court stayed that decision in an order handed down over the weekend, only two days before absentee ballots for overseas and military voters began mailing out. If the justices agree with the lower court’s decision, votes cast for West and De la Cruz will not count.
Another independent candidate, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., voluntarily withdrew his name from the Georgia ballot shortly after he endorsed Trump last month.
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