Cornel West, the provocative, left-wing scholar, appeared via video in a federal courtroom in Pittsburgh on Monday seeking to have his name added to the Nov. 5 presidential ballot. West filed a complaint last month alleging discrimination against the Pennsylvania Department of State for blocking him from appearing on the
  • abff08f4813c
    1•4 days ago

    Where are you seeing that it was in Feb? The ballotpedia you linked to said it was August 1st for PA.

    According to West’s complaint, he submitted nominating papers with 13,000 signatures this summer.
    However, the department rejected those papers, finding that West didn’t have “candidate affidavits” for all 19 electors that he submitted.
    According to the complaint, that process is required only in the event of a third-party candidate.

    So if it wasn’t for the “candidate affidavits” requirement he would have met the deadline. Basically he’s rather reasonably asking that the court declare that requirement illegal since it’s not equally applied, and then retroactively accept his papers.

    It’s a fair enough deal. I don’t think it’d work as the reason it’s not required for the two big parties - those would obviously be able to get electors w/o issue. More likely the judge will just rule that Dems and GOP have to comply with this rule too (which is trivial for them to do so) and keep West off.

    • @jordanlund@lemmy.worldM
      1•3 days ago

      In the link I provided, the state by state chart, Pennsylvania has 2 lines, one for the Democratic party, one for “other qualified parties”, deadline date of February.

      • abff08f4813c
        2•1 day ago

        Thanks for the pointer, I see it now. Super helpful! Also worth calling out that the Dems had an earlier deadline that that still met easily so it’s not a good showing if this independent couldn’t get it in with a laxer deadline…