Judge Rules Cornel West Can’t Appear on Ballot in Pennsylvania

A court in Pennsylvania on Aug. 23 ruled that independent presidential candidate Cornel West cannot appear on the presidential ballot in Pennsylvania, a key battleground state that determines the 2024 election.
The Secretary of State’s office said West and his running mate, activist Melina Abdullah, lacked the required affidavits for 14 of West’s 19 presidential electors. The court agreed with the office’s arguments.
Jubelirer, a Republican, agreed with the Secretary of State’s office that minor-party presidential electors are to be considered candidates for office who must file affidavits, even if major-party presidential electors are not.
Pennsylvania’s Secretary of State office, the court ruled, “is required to certify the ballot in time for county boards to print and mail those ballots to military electors who are serving overseas or in isolated areas ‘not later than [70] days prior’ to a general election.’”
If the court sided with West, it would make “it nearly impossible for [the Secretary of State’s office] and county boards to, respectively, timely certify, print, and mail the absentee ballots as contemplated by the Election Code, and removing almost two weeks from that timeframe almost guarantees the inability to act within those timeframes,” the judge wrote.
For that reason and others, the court found that West “failed to exercise due diligence” and barred him from appearing on the ballot.
Matthew Haverstick, West’s lawyer, had said that he saw “no good reason for Mr. West to be kept off the ballot or Pennsylvanians otherwise prevented from voting for him.” It’s not clear whether he will appeal the court’s decision.
Also on Aug. 23, independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told the court in a filing that he will withdraw from Pennsylvania’s ballot. In a speech in Phoenix, Kennedy said he is suspending his presidential bid, backing former President Donald Trump, and planning to remain on ballots in states where he is unlikely to sway the outcome.
Kennedy later appeared at a rally with Trump, with the former president declaring that Kennedy will “have a huge influence on this campaign.”
The Green Party’s Jill Stein and the Libertarian Party’s Chase Oliver submitted petitions to get on Pennsylvania’s presidential ballot without being challenged, while the Party for Socialism and Liberation has said it will appeal a judge’s decision to order its presidential candidate, Claudia De la Cruz, off Pennsylvania’s ballot.