A Carson City judge has upheld the Green Party’s eligibility to field a presidential candidate in Nevada’s general election, ruling against state Democrats who argued that the progressive third-party had not collected enough signatures to qualify for the 2024 ballot and that its petition to collect signatures contained the wrong affidavit.
Carson City District Court Judge Kristin Luis announced her ruling on Monday. In an order, she wrote that she was not convinced by the state Democratic Party’s arguments, which she said did not provide enough evidence of invalid signatures or inadequate compliance with the law to justify removing the party from the ballot.
“The Democratic Party has failed in its burden to demonstrate that the petition is clearly invalid because it has not presented sufficient evidence to show that the petition has fewer than the required number of valid signatures in any petition district,” the ruling states.
Read more: Hearing held, but no verdict yet in lawsuit against Green Party’s electoral status in Nevada
The Green Party, which has not been on the Nevada general election ballot since 2008, qualified for the state’s ballot in mid-June with about 15,000 valid signatures, well over the required 10,000 or so valid signatures. However, Nevada Democrats immediately filed a lawsuit challenging the validity of the signatures and the forms used by the signatories.
Luis’ decision comes just 15 days before the last day for a qualified minor political party to file a nomination certificate to place candidates for the offices of president and vice president on Nevada’s presidential ballot.
The Green Party has not yet put forward a candidate for the November election, but its former presidential candidate, Jill Stein, is running again this year.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
