ATLANTA– Georgia Democrats Oppose Efforts to Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and three other candidates on state presidential ballots as part of a nationwide effort to block candidates who could steal votes from sitting presidents President Joe Biden.
While Democrats, Republicans and Libertarians have a safe spot on the Georgia ballot, other parties and independent candidates must qualify.
Tolulope Kevin Olasanoye, executive director of the Democratic Party of Georgia, said in a statement that “we take the nomination process very seriously and believe everyone should follow the rules,” said Kennedy, an independent Cornel WestClaudia De la Cruz of the Party for Socialism and Liberation and Jill Stein of the Green Party “have not faithfully complied with the election laws of the State of Georgia.”
“They missed numerous legal deadlines, skipped filing fees, filed the wrong names on nominating petitions, and some failed to hold conventions,” Olasanoye said. “None of these candidates are qualified to be on the Georgia ballot.”
But candidates say Democrats are betraying their professed principles and unfairly trying to block voters’ choices.
Larry Sharpe, outreach director for American Values 2024, a nonpartisan political action committee that supports Kennedy, said state ballot access laws have become “draconian.”
“Most voters are not connected right now,” Sharpe said. “What are they telling us? They want different choices.”
Spokespeople for alternative candidates say they also see challenges in Delaware, Illinois, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, North Carolinaand the District of Columbia.
“We expect to be challenged in every state we file this year,” said Rick Lass, Green Party director of ballot access for Stein.
Bernard Tamas, a professor at Valdosta State University in Georgia who studies third parties, said such challenges are “standard.” Even if they’re unsuccessful, he said challenges drain resources from candidates who don’t have much money to begin with. But Tamas said the opposition from Democrats appears more intense in 2024.
“The third party candidates are stronger and it’s the Democrats who are more concerned,” he said.
Until this year, the only way to get on the Georgia ballot was to collect signatures from 7,500 registered voters across the state. But the Republican majority of the Georgia legislature a law passed directing the secretary of state to also place on the ballot candidates from any party that votes in at least 20 other states. The move was widely interpreted as an attempt to embarrass Biden, though former President Donald Trump’s Republican campaign has also considered the Kennedy campaign with suspicion.
Kennedy and Cornel West, who are seeking admission to Georgia as independents, can only get to the ballot box through the petition process. Claudia De la Cruz, the Party for Socialism and Liberation nominee, also filed petitions.
All three say they have submitted enough signatures by the July 9 deadline. Currently, voter registrations and signatures are being verified by county election offices, said Mike Hassinger, a spokesman for Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. That verification process should be completed by Aug. 1.
Meanwhile, the Green Party, which nominated Stein, says it wants to hold the Georgia vote under the 20-state rule.
But an attorney for the Georgia Democratic Party, which represents three electors, sent letters to Raffensperger’s office on Friday arguing that the efforts by Kennedy, West, De la Cruz and Stein are all legally flawed, triggering hearings before an administrative law judge. Raffensperger will make findings based on a report from the judge, but either side can challenge Raffensperger’s findings in state court.
While some other states routinely put minor-party and independent candidates on the ballot, Georgia voters have not had more than four options since 1948. The last time there were candidates other than a Republican, Democrat and Libertarian was in 2000, when independent Pat Buchanan qualified.
Democrats allege that De la Cruz’s Party for Socialism and Liberation and Stein’s Green Party failed to properly register as political parties in Georgia and failed to run required legal advertising for their conventions. They say this disqualifies them from participating in Georgia’s ballot under the 20-state rule.
Democrats also allege that at least some of the signatures on the petitions filed for Kennedy, West and De la Cruz are invalid because the petitions were filled out incorrectly or incompletely. Democrats also allege that Kennedy and West, as independents, should have filed separate petitions for all 16 electors. The challengers say that West’s electors did not qualify by an earlier June 21 deadline, and that the electors for Kennedy, West and De la Cruz all failed to pay the required $1.50 filing fee.
But Walter Smolarek, a spokesman for De la Cruz, said such nitpicking only “serves to limit the options available to Georgia voters.”
“We reject the hypocrisy of the Democratic Party claiming to be the protectors of democracy against Trump while violating the rights of tens of thousands of voters who want more options on the ballot in Georgia,” Smolarek said in a statement.