Presidential candidate Cornel West in Detroit on Feb. 5, 2024 | Ken Coleman
The state Bureau of Elections on Friday disqualified independent presidential candidate Cornel West from the Nov. 5 general election ballot over a technical violation of state law.
West was disqualified for failing to have his candidate affidavit properly notarized, which invalidated the required document. Challenges were filed with the Michigan Department of State office by veteran elections lawyer and former Michigan Democratic Party Chair Mark Brewer, on behalf of Rosa Holliday, to the affidavits of identity submitted by West and Melina Abdullah on July 23.
An email to the West campaign by the Advance was not returned.
Additionally, Clear Choice Action, which had filed a sworn complaint challenging the qualifying petitions filed by the Cornel West campaign in Michigan due to widespread evidence of fraudulent and forged signatures, released the following statement in response to West’s disqualification:
“Candidates who play by the rules should be on the ballot, but Cornel West is blatantly not playing by the rules, in Michigan or anywhere else,” said Pete Kavanaugh, founder of Clear Choice Action. “He’s being propped up by millions of dollars in spending from Republican dark money groups, breaking myriad campaign finance and coordination laws in the process. In this instance, the West campaign violated the whole point of notarization, which is to ensure that signers are who they say they are, that they are signing willingly, and that they understand what they are signing. Michigan made the appropriate decision based on the facts.”.
The Michigan Bureau of Elections wrote to West, “Accordingly, pursuant to MCL 168.558(4), the Department is required by law to disqualify you from the Nov. 5, 2024 general election ballot for the office of United States President because the Affidavit of Identity that you submitted to the Department on June 17, 2024 was not properly notarized.” The Bureau of Elections specifically noted, “The document being notarized contained unfilled blanks.… The notary certificate failed to include her title of office… and The notary public’s stamp was on a separate sheet of paper and not included with the notary public’s certificate.”
Other candidates expected to vie for the election are Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee; former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee; as well as independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Green Party candidate Jill Stein.
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