Cornel West speaks at the National Press Club February 21, 2017 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)
Third-party presidential candidate Cornel West’s challenge to Pennsylvania’s ballot access rules came too late to consider without the risk of confusing voters and disrupting the Nov. 5 election, a federal judge in Pittsburgh said Thursday.
U.S. District Judge J. Nicholas Ranjan denied a request by West, his running mate Melina Abdullah and three voters to prevent the Pennsylvania Department of State from enforcing its rules for minor political party or political body candidates to appear on the ballot.
Ranjan said he had “serious concerns” about Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt’s application of the state Election Code to West.
“The laws, as applied to him and based on the record before the Court, appear to be designed to restrict ballot access to him (and other nonmajor political candidates) for reasons that are not entirely weighty or tailored, and thus appear to run afoul of the U.S. Constitution,” Ranjan said in a 12-page opinion.
The court, however, is required to consider the impact of its decision on all parties, balancing their interests in the outcome, Ranjan said.
“Common sense tells the Court that we are less than one month from a Presidential general election. There is no time to re-print thousands of ballots and re-test the election systems across all of 67 counties, without increasing the risk of error and confusion,” Ranjan’s decision says.
Attorneys for West, Abdullah and the voters appealed the decision Friday.
“We’re glad the Court recognized that Dr. West’s and voters’ constitutional rights have been violated. But I wish the Secretary would recognize that too,” attorney Matthew Haverstick said.
A spokesperson for Schmidt, who is listed as a defendant, said Schmidt is pleased the court moved quickly to dismiss the case, which he described as a “last-minute bid to cause confusion” in the election.
“One of the dangers of such last-minute litigation is that courts do not have adequate time to review the law in making their decisions,” spokesperson Matthew Heckel said.
West argued in the suit, filed Sept. 25 in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania, that the requirement for minor party candidates to submit affidavits from presidential electors who are unaffiliated with any major party is discriminatory and unconstitutional.
“Without advancing any state interest, Defendants’ interpretation imposes a severe burden on Plaintiffs’ constitutional interests that they would not face if they were not candidates of and voters for a political body rather than a political party,” West’s complaint said.
West is an American philosopher, theologian, political activist, politician, social critic, and public intellectual. Politically progressive, West’s presence on the ballot would likely draw votes away from the Democratic nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris. West is represented by lawyers from the Republican-aligned law firm McNees, Wallace & Nurick.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court last month affirmed a pair of lower court rulings blocking third party presidential candidates from appearing on the ballot.
The courts sided with the Department of State in denying West, Constitution Party presidential candidate James Clymer and Party for Socialism and Liberation candidate Claudia de la Cruz places on the ballot over issues with their presidential electors.
“The Commonwealth Court’s comprehensive analysis of this matter, affirmed by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, shows that this provision of Pennsylvania election law is fully consistent with Constitutional requirements,” Department of State spokesperson Heckel said.
Two minor parties have successfully placed their nominees’ names on the ballot: Jill Stein and vice presidential running mate Samson LeBeau Kpadenou of the Green Party and Chase Oliver and running mate Mike ter Maat of the Libertarian Party.
Independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in August that he was suspending his campaign in Pennsylvania and other battleground states and filed papers in Commonwealth Court asking for his and running mate Nicole Shanahan’s names to be removed from the ballot.
Kennedy’s announcement came after he lost a ballot challenge in New York that questioned the legitimacy of his residence in that state and after a hearing on a similar claim in Pennsylvania, where he arrived late and was not allowed to testify.