On September 11, a Fulton County Superior Court removed all petitioning presidential candidates from the ballot. Pigg v Raffensperger, 24cv-011040, is the decision involving Claudia De la Cruz, the Party for Socialism & Liberation nominee. See it here. There is a similar opinion that removes Cornel West from the ballot.

It says that independent presidential candidates are not suppose to circulate a petition in their own name. Instead they must submit petitions for particular candidates for presidential elector, which would mean that if an independent candidate wanted to run a full slate of electors, he or she would need 16 separate petitions (because Georgia has 16 electoral votes). The opinion also says it is sufficient if the presidential candidate only has one candidate for presidential elector, and with just a single elector candidate, the presidential candidate can be on the ballot.

Ironically, this petition is exactly the opposite of the Pennsylvania elections office, which believes that presidential candidates can’t be on the ballot without a full slate of electors.

The Georgia case is being appealed. This decision has no effect on the Green Party because the Green Party is fighting to place Jill Stein on the ballot under a different law, the one that says a party is on automatically for president if it is on for president in at least 20 other states. Also it has no effect on the Libertarian Party, which is ballot-qualified in Georgia for all the statewide offices.

On September 11, the Elias Law Group, which represents the Democratic Party nationally, threatened to sue the Virginia Board of Elections if the Board doesn’t remove Cornel West from the ballot. See this story. The legislature changed the presidential elector paperwork this year, and the new law went into effect July 1, 2024. The Cornel West used the old forms, which the Board had furnished to them.

On September 10, a Superior Court in Alaska rejected a Democratic Party challenge to the ballot position of Eric Hafner, a candidate for U.S. House and a registered Democrat. See this story. Hafner is in prison and the Democratic Party had argued that if elected, he could not serve.

The Democratic Party didn’t want Hafner on the ballot because they feared some voters might vote for Hafner, instead of the party’s incumbent, even though Alaska uses ranked choice voting.

The case is Alaska Democratic Party v Beecher, S19231.