WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court On Friday, Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein rejected a last-ditch request to enter on the ballot Nevada, the main swing state.
In a brief unsigned ruling, the court upheld a Nevada Supreme Court ruling that blocked Stein from appearing on the ballot because of a dispute over whether the Green Party had filed the correct documents.
State officials told the court that ballots that did not feature Stein and her running mate, Butch Ware, were already being printed ahead of the Nov. 5 election. Ballots must be mailed to overseas military voters by Saturday, and at least one county has already done so.
Forcing a late change to the ballot language would “undermine the integrity of Nevada’s elections,” Attorney General Aaron Ford wrote in court filings.
Jay Sekulu, an ally of former President Donald Trump, represented the Green Party. Especially in swing states, third party candidates It could be crucial to the outcome, as the Green Party could win some votes that would otherwise go to the Democratic nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris.
In NevadaIn what was expected to be a hotly contested battle, Democrats sued to keep Stein off the ballot.
The case arose out of correspondence between the Nevada Green Party and state officials regarding language on a petition seeking signatures to appear on the ballot this year.
But as both sides admit, the secretary of state misrepresented the party, which led to that language appearing in the petition.
The state Democratic Party then sued, saying Stein should not have been included on the ballot due to an error and claiming all signatures were invalid.
A state court judge dismissed the Democrats’ lawsuit, but the Nevada Supreme Court said Stein’s expulsion did not violate the federal constitution and that there was “no evidence that the email was anything more than an unfortunate mistake.”
Sekulow argued in court filings that the Nevada Supreme Court ruling violates the Green Party’s 14th Amendment right to equal protection under the law, as well as its due process rights.
Stein and her running mate, Sekulow added, “were mistakenly removed from the ballot and Nevadans who were going to vote for them in this election were denied the opportunity to do so.”