Independent presidential candidate Dr. Cornel West announced last week that his campaign has secured ballot access in Utah, marking the fourth state where the West campaign will appear on the 2024 ballot.
In a press release published last Friday, the West campaign announced that Cornel West will appear on Utah’s state ballot later this year. In order to achieve ballot access as an unaffiliated candidate, the West campaign had to collect and turn in 1,000 valid signatures by the updated March 5 deadline, in addition to paying a $500 filing fee.
“The Cornel West for President 2024 Campaign is proud to announce its successful attainment of ballot access in Utah as part of the campaign’s 50-state strategy to expand voter choice at a historical moment in our nation’s history,” the release stated. “This landmark achievement marks a significant step forward in our movement, emphasizing our dedication to offering voters a meaningful alternative beyond the corporate duopoly, with Dr. Cornel West standing as an independent candidate on Utah’s state election ballot.”
The deadline for filing petition signatures in Utah was initially January 8, 2024. However, in late December, Utah Lt. Governor Deidre Henderson announced that the January deadline for filing to appear on the presidential ballot was extended from the original date of January 8 to March 5, 2024. The decision to postpone initially came following the threat of a lawsuit from another independent presidential candidate, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who contended that the former rules concerning petitioning placed a significant economic burden on his campaign.
In his release, West implied he would appear as an independent candidate. However, according to the West campaign’s Ballot Access Launch HQ, which typically maintains a list of all states where West has secured ballot access and on what ballot lines, no such information is immediately evident. This initially led to questions by some as to how West would appear on the ballot.
Gadfly Politics, a podcast that focuses on “third parties, fringe candidates, and generally weird American electoral history,” noted over X on Monday that West’s name did not appear on the candidate filing page maintained by the Utah Lt. Governor’s office, which only included Claudia de La Cruz and Robert F. Kennedy as “unaffiliated candidates” at the time. A summary of an email conversation between the Utah Lt. Governor’s office and Gadfly Politics, which was shared with Independent Political Report on Monday, further indicated that West had not yet filed as a candidate for office at all.
According to the conversation, the Utah Lt. Governor’s office informed Gadfly Politics that “[Cornel West]’s name is not on the candidate filing page of http://vote.utah.gov because he has not filed for office yet in Utah.”
This led to further speculation as to whether Cornel West was pursuing the nomination of one of Utah’s eight recognized political parties as a means of ballot access. However, in a follow-up email received on Tuesday morning, the Utah Lt. Governor’s office clarified their initial response, stating that West did turn in the appropriate number of signatures, but he had yet to officially declare his candidacy.
“Just to clarify, Cornel West has qualified for the ballot by gathering the required amount of signatures but he has not declared his candidacy with our office,” the response reads.
Editorial note: This article has been updated to include the most recent response from the Utah Lt. Governor’s office. With thanks to the Gadfly Podcast for bringing attention of Utah to Independent Political Report.
UPDATE: This article has been updated at 12:10 PM to reflect the recent email from the Utah Lt. Governor’s office.