On September 20, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to put the Nevada Green Party on the ballot. The Court has not done anything to help any minor party or independent candidate with ballot access case since 1992, when it struck down some Illinois ballot access laws in Norman v Reed.
In 2024, as in 2012 and 2020, the Florida Secretary of State is not enforcing a 2011 law that says qualified minor parties can’t be on for President unless they are either recognized by the Federal Election Commission as a “national committee”, or unless they submit a petition of 1% of the registered voters (145,040 signatures).
This year the Secretary of State put the presidential nominees of the Socialism & Liberation Party, and the American Solidarity Party, on the ballot. Yet neither submitted a petition, and neither is recognized by the FEC as a “national committee.”
The Secretary of State did not enforce the law in 2012, because, he said, he couldn’t enforce it because he had no official knowledge of which parties are recognized by the FEC. Nor did he enforce it in 2020, when he let the Socialism & Liberation Party on. But he did enforce it in 2016, when the ballot-qualified Independent Party tried to nominate Evan McMullin.
The Georgia Supreme Court will hear the ballot access case involving presidential candidates Claudia De la Cruz and Cornel West on Tuesday, September 24, at 10 a.m. They both petitioned, but then a lower state court judge ruled their petitions should not have been on behalf of the candidates, but on behalf of each candidate’s presidential elector candidates. In other words, the candidates should have prepared petitions for each of their presidential elector candidates and circulated those petitions.
The two candidates’ names are already on the ballot, but the lower court ruled that votes for them should not be counted. If the State Supreme Court reverses the lower court, then their votes will be counted. The Secretary of State is on the same side as the two candidates; the Democratic Party is on the other side.
Free & Equal will sponsor a presidential debate on Wednesday, October 23. Oliver Chase, Jill Stein, and Randall Terry will participate. The debate will be held in Hollywood, California, between 5 and 7 p.m. Pacific time.
On September 18, the Second Circuit issued a one-sentence order in Kennedy v Berger, 24-2385, denying a ballot position to Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., in New York. It is now confirmed that New York will be the only state with only two presidential candidates on the ballot.
