On August 28, the New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division, heard Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s ballot access appeal. See this story. There were five judges. Supreme Court Justices in New York are elected in partisan elections. Four of the five justices are Democrats. One is a Republican.

Only two of the judges participated in a meaningful way in the oral argument, including the one Republican and one of the Democrats.

If Kennedy had not withdrawn, he would have been on the ballot in every state except possibly New York, depending on how this case and his parallel federal case goes.

On August 27, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court issued new temporary rules that will speed election law cases for the next few weeks. See it here.

Pennsylvania and New York are the two states with the most unresolved presidential ballot access issues.

On August 29, the Georgia Secretary of State overruled the administrative law judge as to Claudia De la Cruz’ ballot access. She is the nominee of the Party for Socialism & Liberation. The administrative law judge had said that petitioning candidates for president need a separate petition for each candidate for presidential elector. But the Secretary of State said that can’t be right, because in 2016 a federal judge had struck down the state’s ballot access petition requirement and had said that the new requirement will be 7,500 signatures. Forcing a petitioning presidential candidate to submit a separate petition for presidential elector, each with 7,500 signatures, would violate what the federal court had set as the state’s new interim law.

So far the Secretary of State has not ruled on the petitions for the other candidates, but it seems clear that the same logic will apply as well to Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., and Cornel West. The issues for Jill Stein are somewhat different. So far there is no ruling from the Secretary of State for her.

UPDATE: the Secretary of State has also ruled in favor of Cornel West and Jill Stein. However Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will not be on the ballot. As to Jill Stein, the Secretary of State accepted the Unified Green Party as the relevant party, instead of the Green Party. As has been reported before, there is a factional split in the Greens in Georgia and the objectors tried to exploit that.