On September 6, the Nevada Supreme Court voted 5-2 to remove the Green Party from the ballot. Nevada State Democratic Party v Nevada Green Party, 24 OC 00107.1B. The lower court had kept the party on the ballot. Here is the 18-page opinion.

When the Green Party began its petition drive, the Nevada Secretary of State furnished a sample form. But, the Nevada Secretary of State sent an incorrect version. The petition blank should have contained a sentence saying the circulator attests that, to his or her belief, all the signatures were of registered voters. The petition blank for initiatives does not have such a requirement. Furthermore the requirement that this sentence be included is not mentioned in the election law; it is only a regulation.

The court majority acknowledges that the Secretary of State’s error was responsible, and says it was an “unfortunate mistake.” The majority acknowledges that Nevada precedent says substantial compliance is good enough. As the dissent points out, the missing sentence serves no useful purpose, because all the signatures were checked anyway and there were easily enough valid signatures.

This is an especially painful blow for the Green Party, because it almost certainly would have polled enough votes for one of its nominees to keep its spot on the ballot. Furthermore the decision completely eliminates the ability of Nevada voters to cast a vote for Jill Stein, because Nevada bans write-in votes.