On September 11, the Idaho Democratic Party filed a lawsuit in Idaho state trial court to remove Kanye West from the ballot. The basis is that he is a registered Republican in his home state of Wyoming. Idaho Democratic Party v Denney, Ada Co., 4th jud. dist.
News stories constantly report that West was removed from the Arizona ballot because he was a registered Republican. This is not true. The Arizona Supreme Court removed him from the Arizona ballot because his presidential elector candidates didn’t fill out campaign finance documents. The confusion comes because the Arizona lower court used the registration as the basis for removing him, but the State Supreme Court did not accept that reason.
In all U.S. history, no one has ever been kept off any ballot for president (primary or general) on the basis of how he or she is registered. John B. Anderson was affiliated with the Republican Party of Illinois all through calendar year 1980 and he was on the ballot as an independent in all 51 jurisdictions. If the theory of the Democratic Party of Idaho is correct, then Jill Stein, Rocky Anderson, and Darrell Castle were all wrongly on the Idaho ballot in past years.
In general elections, presidential candidates are not on the ballot in their role as candidates. Instead their names are on the ballot as identifiers for competing slates of electors. The candidates for presidential elector have a right to say whom they are pledged to vote for if they get elected to the electoral college, especially if their presidential candidate meets the constitutional qualifications to be president.
This could be an attempt to head off any future Bernie Sanders type candidates
In Idaho this seems kinda silly. I’d be curious why the democrats care in a state that Trump will carry very easily
I think you’re being too kind to the writers/creators of said news stories Richard. The Democrats and their media operatives look for any way to pin any third party and Independent candidate as a GOP/Russian operative.
@ Cox Agreed. “In Idaho this seems kinda silly.”
Kanye West will not be pulling votes from Biden Democrats so much as he will be pulling unaffiliated votes away from Blankenship and the national CP.
Idaho Democrats are among the bluest dawgs in the country when I comes to a national or statewide ticket.
Instant dismissal and sanctions on lawyers —
attempted subversion of USA Const 2-1-5 Prez qualifs.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Dog_Coalition
being PURGED by RED COMMUNIST Donkey TYRANTS — Biden, Harris, Pelosi, etc. ??? Duh.
The difference is that Anderson made it clear that he was running to oppose Reagan, while West is running to aid Donnie. There’s also the little matter of the repeated lies and fraud in his ballot applications in various states.
And yes, Stein of the Getting Republicans Elected Every November Party has no business on a ballot. Neither does Castle because his party didn’t nominate him; he had no more right to be on the ballot in the general election than Bernie Sanders or Jeb Bush.
IMO, deciding which candidate has a “right” to be on a ballot is pre-emptive voter suppression. It seems to me that the voters has a superior right to a wide selection. It’s up to the voters to decide who are “nuisance” candidates; that’s what elections are for. Ranked choice or approval voting would minimize the “spoiler” effect that bedevils the major parties. Ballot access should be as easy as is reasonably possible. Candidates should be able to submit filing fees in substitution for ballot signatures. Qualified parties should be able to nominate directly to the ballot without signatures, if they so choose.
Brian Jenkins, in 1990 the U.S. signed the Copenhagen Meeting Document, part of the Helsinki Accords. We and the other nations who signed promised to “respect the right of individuals and groups to establish, in full freedom, their own political parties or other political organizations and provide such political parties and organizations with the necessary legal guarantees to enable them to compete with each other on a basis of equal treatment before the law.” In 2016 the Green Party got 1,457,217 votes for president.
NOOO enforceable Treaty (often with USA enforcement law) = more utopian junk.
INDIVIDUALS are nominated / elected.