GA Supreme Court disqualifies two independent presidential candidates

Votes cast for third-party presidential candidates Cornel West, an independent, and Claudia De la Cruz, a socialist, will not be counted in Georgia after the state’s Supreme Court upheld a lower court ruling that both candidates filed improper nominating petitions, and thus did not qualify to appear on the ballot. The court’s unanimous decision is a win for Democrats, who feared that the presence of the two additional independent candidates on the ballot could dilute support for Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris in a critical battleground state. 
More:A judge disqualified two third-party candidates. Here’s why they may still be on the ballot.
Under Georgia law, votes cast for any presidential candidate do not count directly towards that candidate. Rather, votes are cast for a slate of presidential electors, who must themselves qualify for the position by submitting a separate petition with 7,500 signatures from Georgia voters.  
“The defect that prevents independent presidential candidates West and De la Cruz from appearing on Georgia’s ballot does not pertain to the number of signatures acquired; it is that West’s electors and De la Cruz’s electors filed no nomination petitions at all,” Justice Sarah Warren wrote in the opinion. 
Despite the improper filing, an Aug. 29 ruling from Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger had enabled the candidates to appear on Georgia’s ballot, disregarding an administrative law judge’s recommendation. The judge’s decision would have also applied to independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., but Kennedy had already suspended his campaign and voluntarily withdrawn his name. Green Party candidate Jill Stein qualified through a new state law that enables third-party candidates to appear on the ballot in Georgia if they qualify in 20 other states. 
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A pair of Democrat-backed lawsuits challenging West and De la Cruz’s candidacies in Fulton County Superior Court quickly reached the Georgia Supreme Court, which heard oral arguments Tuesday and issued an opinion the following day. The decision affirmed earlier rulings from Judge Thomas Cox Jr. and Judge Emily Richardson, who disqualified the candidates from this year’s presidential race. 
However, Senior Assistant Attorney General Elizabeth Young, who represents Raffensperger, told the justices Tuesday it’s too late to remove West and De la Cruz from the ballot, as military and overseas absentee ballots already have been mailed out. 
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As a result, local election officials will be required to post notices at polling places and in mailed-out ballots alerting voters that any votes cast for West or De la Cruz will not be counted in all precincts where their names remain on the ballot. 
“We respect the decision of the Georgia Supreme Court,” said Mike Hassinger, a spokesperson for the Secretary of State’s office, in response to the ruling. “As the justices indicated, this is an area of law that the General Assembly may wish to clarify.” 
West and De la Cruz’ campaigns did not immediately respond to requests for comment. 
The ruling leaves only four valid presidential candidates on Georgia’s ballot in November: Democrat Kamala Harris, Republican Donald Trump, Libertarian Chase Oliver and the Green Party’s Jill Stein. 
Maya Homan is a 2024 election fellow at USA TODAY who focuses on Georgia politics. She is @MayaHoman on X, formerly Twitter.