A court in Pennsylvania on Aug. 23 ruled that independent presidential candidate Cornel West cannot appear on the presidential ballot in Pennsylvania, a key battleground state that determines the 2024 election.
In a 15-page ruling, Commonwealth Court Judge Renée Cohn Jubelirer sided with the Secretary of State’s office under Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro in rejecting West’s candidacy paperwork.
The Secretary of State’s office said West and his running mate, activist Melina Abdullah, lacked the required affidavits for 14 of West’s 19 presidential electors. The court agreed with the office’s arguments.
Jubelirer, a Republican, agreed with the Secretary of State’s office that minor-party presidential electors are to be considered candidates for office who must file affidavits, even if major-party presidential electors are not.
Pennsylvania’s Secretary of State office, the court ruled, “is required to certify the ballot in time for county boards to print and mail those ballots to military electors who are serving overseas or in isolated areas ‘not later than [70] days prior’ to a general election.’”
If the court sided with West, it would make “it nearly impossible for [the Secretary of State’s office] and county boards to, respectively, timely certify, print, and mail the absentee ballots as contemplated by the Election Code, and removing almost two weeks from that timeframe almost guarantees the inability to act within those timeframes,” the judge wrote.
Hellbound and Down 