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.