The Wisconsin Elections Commission voted 5–1 on Aug. 27 to keep Cornel West, a long-shot progressive candidate, on the ballot in the key swing state.
The lone dissenting vote was cast by the commission’s chair, Ann Jacobs, a Democrat who said that while West properly submitted his name to be on the ballot, his running mate, Black Lives Matter activist Melina Abdullah, did not.
Attorney Oliver Hall, who represents West’s campaign, told the commission the West campaign submitted its nomination and declaration of candidacy papers on time and that Wisconsin law permits an out-of-state notarization. In this case, the notary was from California.
Hall, founder of the Center for Competitive Democracy, said an objection to the candidacy was based on the notary’s seal being next to Abdullah’s oath in her candidacy declaration but not her signature, even though that was not the case on another page of it. He said the challengers say the second page is invalid since it was not attached to the initial document.
“To make these hyper-technical arguments, the petitioners must establish that these statutes require strict compliance,” Hall said.
Attorney David Hollander, representing the petitioners, said Abdullah wrote her name where the notary was supposed to sign. Despite that not being the case on a separate page, it was not attached to the original page, he said.
Because of that, “the notary and the document that it’s witnessing could be switched out, and we would never know,” he said.
“Every person is presumed to know the law, and ignorance of the law is not an excuse,” Hollander said, adding that it is “a failure of the notarial officer.”
He said Abdullah could have corrected the errors and made the candidacy declaration compliant with the law.
Oliver Hall said the decision was not surprising.
“The challenge came down to the Democrats’ allegation that the papers were missing a single staple. By overwhelmingly voting to reject that claim, the commission properly protected the voting rights of thousands of Wisconsin voters who signed the West/Abdullah papers and the rights of all Wisconsin voters who want a free choice of candidates at the polls,” he told The Epoch Times.
The Epoch Times reached out to Hollander for his reaction to the decision to keep West on the ballot.
The Epoch Times also reached out to the West campaign for comment.
The Wisconsin decision comes after Michigan Court of Claims Judge James Robert Redford’s ruling on Aug. 24 that West will appear on that state’s ballot.
The plaintiffs argued that the former college professor could not run as an independent in the state since he was the Natural Law Party candidate in other states.
Additionally, the Michigan Bureau of Elections told the West campaign on Aug. 16 that West’s affidavit of identity was improperly notarized, which Redford rejected.
West’s campaign called it a “decisive victory for democratic principles and voter choice.”
“We are grateful for this affirmation and promise to continue championing the rights of all voters,” said West in a statement.
