Fulton judge overturns Georgia secretary of state decision in favor of third-party ballot presence

Caption

Independent candidate Cornel West appeared at a protest outside the 2024 Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

Credit: Ross Williams/Georgia Recorder

Georgians could have fewer choices for president when they go to vote this November after two Fulton County Superior Court judges reversed Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s decision and ruled independent candidate Cornel West and Claudia De la Cruz with the Party for Socialism and Liberation are not eligible to run for president in the state.

The Wednesday decision marks a win for the Democratic Party of Georgia, which filed suit to remove the candidates.

With early voting set to begin in just over a month, the judges ordered Raffensperger to post notices at polling places in cases where there is insufficient time to print new ballots.

Both candidates have vowed to appeal.

“Across the country, the Democratic Party is using the courts to wage an assault on democracy,” De la Cruz said in a statement. “They are backed by their billionaire friends, and super PACs like Clear Choice which have raised huge sums of money for the explicit goal of removing third party candidates. We will appeal this ruling. People in Georgia should have the right to vote for the candidate of their choice.”

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Claudia De la Cruz, left, and Karina Garcia are running for President and Vice-President as the candidates of the Party for Socialism and Liberation.

Credit: Photo via De la Cruz campaign

Both West and De la Cruz have criticized the Democrat’s nominee Vice President Kamala Harris from her left and could conceivably attract votes from progressives who favor her over Republican former President Donald Trump, but dislike Harris’ economic policies or her backing of Israel’s military actions in Gaza, which inspired protests in college campuses across the nation, including in Georgia. In what is expected to be a close race, a small number of third-party votes lost to the independents could make a difference.

West’s campaign urged voters to support the third-party challenger despite the ruling.

“We are appealing this decision, which negates the basic democratic rights of the people of Georgia to vote for the candidate of their choice,” said Edwin DeJesus, a spokesperson for the West campaign. “We will not stand by as the democratic process is undermined. This ruling is a direct assault on the voters’ rights to choose their leaders, and we are fighting to ensure that every Georgian can vote for a candidate who truly represents their values and visions for the future.”

Neither the Democratic Party of Georgia nor the secretary of state’s office responded to requests for comment Thursday, but Raffensperger, a Republican, referenced the cases in a Twitter thread Tuesday.

“Partisan activists are attempting to tilt the scales of this election and I believe that is wrong. This election will be decided by Georgia’s voters and not political activists,” he wrote. “The law is clear, and these qualified candidates have a right to be on Georgia’s ballot, and I will fight for voters’ rights every day to choose the candidate for whom they want to elect.”

Libertarian candidate Chase Oliver and Green Party Candidate Jill Stein will appear on Georgia ballots – Oliver because Libertarians received a sufficient number of votes in the previous election, and Stein because she qualified under a new state law granting ballot access to candidates on the ballot in at least 20 other states. They will join the major party contenders, Trump and Harris, at the top of the ticket.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who was previously leading the third-party pack, though still far behind the major party frontrunners, dropped out of the race in late August and endorsed Trump.

A Quinnipiac poll conducted Sept. 4 through Sept. 8 found Trump leading in Georgia with 49% of the vote to Harris’ 45%, with West and De la Cruz both receiving about 1% of the vote each and neither Oliver nor Stein breaking 1%. The poll’s margin of error is 3.2%.

The poll was conducted prior to this week’s televised debate between Harris and Trump, which could be the only in-person face-off between the two major party candidates.

This story comes to GPB through a reporting partnership with Georgia Recorder.