Nicole Shanahan, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s running mate, seems to be saying that the ticket is considering dropping out. See here.
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On August 20, the Missouri Secretary of State said the Green Party petition is valid. The party did this drive, which required 10,000 valid signatures, entirely by volunteer labor, although it took over 18 months. This is an example of the importance of letting petitions begin to circulate as early as the proponents wish.
On August 17, the Seventh Circuit upheld Indiana’s petition requirement for statewide independent candidates and the nominees of unqualified parties. Indiana Green Party v Morales, 23-2756. The state required 44,935 signatures when the lawsuit was filed in 2022, and at the time Indiana had the nation’s highest percentage for presidential candidates running outside the major parties. No one had used the petition since 2000.
However, due to low voter turnout in November 2022, the requirement (2% of the vote for Secretary of State) dropped to 36,944 signatures for the 2024 election. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. successfully met the requirement. The Seventh Circuit therefore seemed to feel the requirement is not severe enough to be unconstitutional
Here is the decision. It is by Judge Kenneth Ripple, a Reagan appointee. It is also signed by Judge David Hamilton (Clinton) and Judge Michael Brennan (Trump).
Indiana is one of only four states in which the Green Party presidential nominee has never been on the ballot. The others are Georgia, Oklahoma, and South Dakota. This year the Green Party expects to be on the Georgia ballot.
The Arizona independent presidential petition deadline was Saturday, August 17. Cornel West collected approximately 100,000 signatures but decided not to file them. At least one of his presidential elector candidates says she never volunteered to be a candidate for elector, and her signature appears to have been forged on the declaration of candidacy. See this story.
On August 19, an administrative law judge heard a Democratic Party challenge to the independent petition of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. See this story. The administrative law judge will make a recommendation to the Secretary of State. On the same day he also heard a challenge to the Claudia De la Cruz petition. She is the nominee of the Party for Socialism and Liberation.
There will be similar hearings in a few days to challenge the status of the Green Party, and the petition of Cornel West.
The objector is claiming that each candidate for presidential elector needed his or her own separate petition, but when independent presidential candidates have petitioned in the past, they listed all their elector candidates on a single petition. The last independent presidential candidate who qualified by petition in Georgia was Pat Buchanan in 2000.