Cornel West Campaign Clears Ballot Access Challenges in Maine

The presidential campaign of Dr. Cornel West successfully cleared two ballot access challenges in Maine, with the Secretary of State ruling this week that the campaign still had enough valid signatures to qualify despite needing to discard some petition forms.

Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows ruled on Tuesday that while the West campaign submitted some petition forms containing signatures “gathered fraudulently” and subject to rejection, the campaign still had sufficient valid signatures to qualify for the state ballot. Bellows also reaffirmed in response to a second challenge against West that signatures listing only a nickname or a date reflecting just the day and month that were otherwise properly recorded were appropriately certified.

“The Secretary, upon review of the proceedings and evidence, determined that some signatures were gathered fraudulently, leading to the rejection of the petition forms containing those signatures,” the release reads. “Nonetheless, Secretary Bellows concluded, as detailed in the decision, that a sufficient number of valid signatures were submitted by the Campaign for Dr. West to appear on Maine’s presidential ballot, and the Gass and Berger challenges to the petition are therefore denied.”

“The bad actions of one should not impugn the valid First Amendment rights of the many,” Bellows is further quoted as saying.

Independent Political Report shared this month that challenges were filed against the presidential campaigns of Dr. Cornel West and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Both candidates had hearings scheduled for last week; however, the challenge against Kennedy was withdrawn before it was scheduled to begin. West still had his hearing that same afternoon.

The West campaign faced two challenges. The first claimed that the campaign both collected more signatures than the statutory maximum of 5,000 allowed and failed to collect enough valid signatures to satisfy ballot access requirements. It argued that as many as 3,718 signatures had to be discarded due to incomplete dates, ditto marks, the use of initials, and several other “signature deficiencies.”

A second challenge alleged that the West campaign hired petitioners who “appeared to use fraudulent tactics to coerce Maine voters into signing,” namely by telling people that the petitions were for pending future legislation related to preventing “improper financial dealings by members of Congress and addressing corporate corruption.” The challenge argued that entire pages should be discarded as a result. It also claimed that some signatories lived outside of Maine.

In response to the challenges before the scheduled hearing, the West campaign stated that it had followed a “meticulous verification process that included a line-by-line assessment of each signature, ensuring all legal standards were met.”