Democratic National Committee Employee Files Complaints to Block Jill Stein and Cornel West Campaigns from Wisconsin Ballot

A Democratic National Committee employee filed a complaint this week to block the Green Party’s Dr. Jill Stein from appearing on the Wisconsin state ballot, arguing that the party cannot legally nominate electors. The same employee also filed a complaint against the Cornel West campaign.

According to the Associated Press, the complaint against Stein was filed by David Strange, the Wisconsin deputy operations director for the Democratic National Committee. Strange claims that the Green Party lacks the authority to nominate presidential electors and therefore cannot legally put forward a slate necessary for Stein to appear on the ballot. He argues in his complaint that state law requires those who nominate electors to be state officers, none of which the Green Party currently has in Wisconsin.

Under Wisconsin Statutes, specifically section 8.18, individuals authorized to nominate presidential electors include “candidates for the senate and assembly nominated by each political party at the primary, the state officers and the holdover state senators[.]”

Additionally, a WisPolitics article on Thursday indicates that Strange also filed a complaint against the independent presidential ticket of Dr. Cornel West and Dr. Melina Abdullah last week, claiming that both candidates failed to properly notarize their declarations of candidacy.

In a copy of his challenge, Strange argues that West and Abdullah’s declarations of candidacy “contain defective notary jurats, and therefore must be excluded from the ballot.” He notes that the declarations were defective for different reasons, with West’s failing to include a required boxed notice along with the form, and Abdullah’s failing to include the signature of the person who administered her oath. Instead, her name is listed where the signature of a public notary would be, with the notary’s signature being on a separate page that Strange argues “is not tied in any way to the signature it purports to witness.”

The Wisconsin Elections Commission will meet later this month to determine whether to place four presidential candidates, including Stein and West on the state ballot.

With thanks to IPR editorial team member Prof. George Phillies for sharing news regarding the challenge to Stein.