A judge in Georgia ruled that four independent and third-party candidates are ineligible to appear on the state’s presidential ballot. The final decision will ultimately rest with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. The candidates affected by the ruling include independents Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Cornel West, as well as the Green Party’s Jill Stein and Claudia De la Cruz from the Party for Socialism and Liberation. The litigation came after Democrats raised concerns that these candidates could draw votes away from Democratic nominee and Vice President Kamala Harris, especially in a state that was won by Joe Biden by a slim margin of fewer than 12,000 votes in 2020.
Raffensperger will need to make a decision before Georgia begins mailing out military and overseas ballots on September 17. The office is currently reviewing the judge’s rulings and will make a decision soon. If the judge’s decisions are upheld, Georgia voters will have a limited choice between Harris, Republican Donald Trump, and Libertarian candidate Chase Oliver in the presidential race. The state of Georgia is one of several where challenges have been filed against third-party and independent candidates, with Democrats seeking to exclude them from the ballot while Republicans pushed to keep them included.
The judge ruled that the petitions for the independent candidates needed to be filed in the name of the 16 presidential electors, rather than the candidates themselves, based on a change in Georgia law. This decision impacted the cases of Kennedy, West, and De la Cruz. The parties for these candidates argued against this interpretation, stating that it would be burdensome to collect 7,500 signatures on 16 different petitions. Additionally, the judge ruled that Kennedy should be disqualified due to using a false address on his petitions, an issue brought to light by a New York court decision that found Kennedy did not actually live at the address he listed.
The Green Party had hoped to qualify for the Georgia ballot under a new law that awards a ballot place to candidates from a party that qualifies in at least 20 other states. However, Malihi ruled that the party did not have proof of qualifying in the required number of states before Georgia’s ballot printing deadline, leading to their disqualification. Supporters of the affected candidates have criticized the Democrats for using technicalities to limit voter choice. The final decision on the ballot eligibility of these candidates now rests with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.
