The Pennsylvania petitions of Claudia De la Cruz, and Randall Terry are being challenged because the two presidential candidates didn’t submit a full slate of electors. The hearing was in Commonwealth Court on Wednesday, August 14. Clymer v Schmidt, 376 MD 2024.
There is no Pennsylvania law that says presidential candidates must submit a full slate of electors, and in the past Pennsylvania has printed presidential candidates’ names on the November ballot even though they didn’t have a full slate of electors.
The same issue arose in New York in 1968, when the Socialist Workers Party was challenged for not having a full slate of elector candidates. But the Socialist Workers Party won that case in State Supreme Court and in the Appellate Division.
The case also involved the issue of how many signatures are needed. On this matter, the Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. petition is also being challenged. On that particular issue the state is on the side of the candidates, and argues that 5,000 signatures are needed. This issue does not affect the Constitution Party because even the objectors admit they only need 5,000 signatures. Back in 2016 the Constitution, Libertarian and Green Parties won in court over the number of signatures, but the objectors say those are the only parties that only need 5,000, and that everyone else needs 33,000.
What’s up with the Amsrican Solidaity Party? I heard that they had some paperwork errors with presidential electors and that their signatures are being challenged.
They have the same problem. If the lawsuit wins it will help them also.
PA E LAW SECTION TEXT RE PREZ CANDS SUBMIT 12 AMDT ELECTORS LIST ???
OBVIOUSLY EACH STATE WANTS TO CAST ITS MAX 12 AMDT POWER
HOW MANY STATES HAVE A 12 AMDT LAW RE PREZ ELECTORS [OR EVEN A STATE HACK] FILLING ANY VACANCY IN OTHER PREZ ELECTOR SPOTS ???
@AZ,
A vacancy can not occur until after the electors are appointed. In most (all?) States, the number of votes cast for the presidential candidate are attributed to the elector candidates associated with presidential candidate. If there are fewer elector candidates than electors to be appointed, then electors for other candidates would move up in the overall standings. See Indiana Certificate of Ascertainment for 2020, for an example where many write-in candidates did not submit a full slate of electors.
If De La Cruz and Terry, respectively, receive the most popular votes in Pennsylvania, and De La Cruz had 10 elector nominees, then those 10 De La Cruz nominees would be elected/appointed, along with 9 Terry electors (there might have to be a tie-breaking procedure to determine which nine.
Pennsylvania apparently permits write-in votes for individual electors. A voter could conceivably write-in names of *some* of the Trump and *some* of the Harris electors, and result in a split of electoral votes in an **extremely** close election.
How many petition signatures were turned in by the Constitution Party, the American Solidarity Party and the Party for Socialism and Liberation?