Georgia voters will have a diverse selection of presidential candidates to choose from in the upcoming election, as Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger has made decisions regarding ballot access for various contenders.
Raffensperger has reinstated Cornel West and Claudia De la Cruz on the ballot, allowing voters to consider these independent and Party for Socialism and Liberation nominees, respectively. However, Green Party nominee Jill Stein has been barred from appearing on the ballot.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who initially entered the race as an independent, has officially withdrawn his name from consideration, leaving five candidates in the running for Georgia voters. These candidates include President Donald Trump, Cornel West, Claudia De la Cruz, Democrat Kamala Harris, and Libertarian Chase Oliver.
The decision to include West and De la Cruz on the ballot has faced legal challenges from Democrats, who sought to prevent candidates that could potentially draw votes away from Harris, especially after Joe Biden's narrow victory in Georgia in 2020.
The state Democratic Party argued that petitions for independent candidates must be filed in the name of the 16 presidential electors, not the candidates themselves, based on a change in Georgia law in 2017. However, Raffensperger determined that the petitions submitted for De la Cruz and West met the legal requirements, as both candidates collected more than the necessary 7,500 signatures.
Georgia's ballot access rules have been a point of contention, with Democrats challenging third-party and independent candidates in several states. In this case, Republicans in Georgia intervened to support keeping all candidates on the ballot.
While the Green Party attempted to leverage a new Georgia law that grants ballot access to parties qualifying in at least 20 other states, Raffensperger concurred with the decision to exclude Jill Stein due to a lack of proof of qualification in the required number of states.
As the election draws near, Georgia voters will have a broader range of choices than in recent history, with the potential for five presidential candidates on the ballot, marking a departure from the usual selection of four candidates.
