Votes in Georgia for third-party presidential candidates Cornel West, an independent, and Claudia De la Cruz, a socialist, will not count because the two are not qualified to appear on the ballot, the Supreme Court of Georgia ruled unanimously on Sept. 25.
The state’s highest court overruled an earlier decision by Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger that had lowered the signature threshold needed in petitions for ballot access to 7,500.
Georgia—which then-presidential candidate Joe Biden won by fewer than 12,000 votes in 2020—is one of multiple states where Democrats have sought to prevent third-party and independent candidates from siphoning votes away from Vice President Kamala Harris in November.
Democrats argued in the case that West and De la Cruz failed to qualify in the battleground state because their 16 presidential electors did not each submit a separate petition with the 7,500 signatures needed to access Georgia’s ballots.
Instead, only one petition per candidate was submitted, as specified by Georgia’s secretary of state.
In August, a state administrative law judge ruled that West and De la Cruz were disqualified from Georgia’s ballot because their electors failed to meet the qualification requirements under Georgia’s Election Code.
That ruling was then overruled by the secretary of state, who said both West and De la Cruz’s electors had qualified under Georgia law for the office of presidential elector.
In September, two different superior court judges reviewing the challenges reversed Raffensperger’s decision after finding that their electors hadn’t filed the proper paperwork.
The Supreme Court of Georgia agreed with the later decisions, writing in its ruling that the superior courts “correctly concluded that neither West’s nor De la Cruz’s electors satisfied the statutory requirements for their respective independent candidates to appear on Georgia’s ballot for the office of President of the United States.”
Response to Ruling
The ruling means Georgia voters will have a choice of four presidential candidates: Harris, Republican nominee former President Donald Trump, Libertarian Chase Oliver, and the Green Party’s Jill Stein.Democrats, Republicans, and Libertarians automatically qualify for elections in Georgia.
De la Cruz is the nominee for the Party of Socialism and Liberation but technically qualified for the Georgia ballot as an independent alongside her running mate, Karina Garcia.
“Democratic Party lawyers and the Republican-majority Supreme Court worked together to suppress democracy,” De la Cruz said in a statement. ”This unjust ruling is a reminder of why it is so urgent to build an alternative outside the two-party system.”
A spokesman for West’s campaign urged voters to still choose him despite the court’s ruling.
“His name is still appearing on the ballot,” Edwin DeJesus said. “We encourage all voters supporting our campaign to cast their vote for Cornel West in Georgia.”
A spokesperson for Georgia’s secretary of state told The Epoch Times in an emailed statement his office respects the decision of the Georgia Supreme Court.
“As the justices indicated, this is an area of law that the General Assembly may wish to clarify,” the spokesperson said.
