On November 18, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear Ayyadurai v Democratic State Committee of New Jersey, 24-342. This is the lawsuit filed by independent presidential candidate Shiva Ayyadurai. He had enough valid signatures in New Jersey, and New Jersey has many times in the past printed the names of presidential and vice-presidential candidates who don’t meet the constitutional qualifications. But in this case the New Jersey Democratic Party had challenged Ayyadurai, and the lower state courts had upheld the challenge.

It is not clear why the New Jersey Democratic Party took this action.

If the U.S. Supreme Court had taken up the case, that could have settled some questions not answered in the Trump v Anderson case from early in 2024. There were many briefs filed in Trump v Anderson on the issue of whether unqualified candidates for president should nevertheless be allowed on the ballot, on the theory that the true candidates are running for presidential elector. Trump v Anderson bypassed that question.

The two states that used Ranked Choice Voting this year gave significantly higher vote percentages to minor party presidential candidates, relative to the states that didn’t use RCV.

Jill Stein’s highest percentage was in Maine, one of the states that used RCV.

Cornel West’s second-best and third-best percentages came in the two RCV states, Maine and Alaska. His best percentage was in Vermont.

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr’s third-best state was Alaska, one of the RCV states. He wasn’t on in Maine, the other RCV state. His best states were Montana and South Dakota.

Chase Oliver’s fourth-best and fifth-best states were the two RCV states. The only states in which he did better than the RCV states were North Dakota, Wyoming, and Utah. In North Dakota and Wyoming he was the only alternative on the ballot to the two major party nominees.

Randall Terry’s best state was Alaska, one of the RCV states.

Peter Sonski’s best state was Alaska, one of the RCV states. He was the American Solidarity Party nominee.

Claudia De la Cruz, of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, wasn’t on either of the two RCV states. Her best state was Vermont, although California is very close and the California votes aren’t all counted.

Shiva Ayyadurai’s best state was his home state of Massachusetts.

The Socialist Workers Party’s best state was Vermont.

The Texas Secretary of State has these write-in total for the declared presidential candidates who were on the ballot in at least one state:

Peter Sonski, American Solidarity: 3,514. In 2020 this party had received 2,785 write-ins for president in Texas.

Claudia De la Cruz, Socialism & Liberation: 2,161. In 2020 this party had received 350 write-ins for president in Texas.

Cornel West, 1,688.

Shiva Ayyadurai, 421.