MADISON, Wisconsin (AP) – Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stone will remain on the ballot in the crucial swing state of Wisconsin after the state Supreme Court decided on Monday not to hear a lawsuit filed by Democrats seeking her removal.
Democrats fear that third-party candidates could take votes away from the vice president Kamala Harris and help the Republicans Donald Trump Wisconsin. The presence of independent and third-party candidates on the ballot could be a deciding factor in a state where four of the last six presidential elections have been decided by 5,700 to 23,000 votes.
The court decided against hearing the Challenge brought by David Strange, an employee of the Democratic National Committee, who wanted to remove Stein from the ballot. The court gave no reason.
“We conclude that plaintiff is not entitled to the compensation he seeks,” the court said in its unsigned order.
Strange argued that the Green Party could not nominate electors in Wisconsin because the party had neither state officials nor legislative candidates with the authority to nominate electors.
The Greens and the Republicans responded that the party met all legal requirements and that Stein should therefore remain on the ballot.
Michael White, co-chair of the Wisconsin Green Party, called the complaint a “sign of fear on the part of the Democratic Party” and welcomed the court’s decision not to consider it.
“That was an inevitable conclusion because the complaint was unfounded from the start and we knew that,” he said.
However, White said the attention generated by Democrats’ attempt to push Stein off the ballot motivated Green Party members.
A spokesman for the Democratic National Committee and an attorney for the DNC staffer who filed the complaint did not immediately respond to messages.
Stein was last on the Wisconsin ballot in 2016, when she received just over 31,000 votes – more than Trump’s margin of nearly 23,000 votes. Some Democrats have accused her of helping Trump win the state and the presidency this year.
Strange had challenged a decision by the Wisconsin Elections Commission in February to grant ballot rights to the Green Party. The commission did so because a candidate from the party received more than 1% of the vote in a 2022 statewide election, meeting a legal requirement. Sheryl McFarland received nearly 1.6% of the vote and finished last in a four-candidate race for secretary of state.
The Wisconsin Election Commission is scheduled to meet Tuesday to confirm which candidates will be eligible to appear on the ballot. Democrats are also challenging the placement of independent candidate Cornel West on the ballot. A Republican National Committee staffer challenged the candidacy of independent Shiva Ayyadurai.
The Wisconsin Supreme Court has disqualified Green Party presidential candidate Howie Hawkins from running in the election in 2020 after there was no agreement within the electoral commission as to whether he had submitted the correct nomination signatures.
