A Michigan judge has reversed a decision that had barred independent candidate Cornel West from appearing on the state’s ballot.
Michigan Court of Claims Judge James Robert Redford ruled that the Michigan Bureau of Elections must qualify West and his running mate for the ballot if they have submitted a sufficient number of valid signatures. He found that the Michigan Secretary of State and the Bureau of Elections had “misapplied the law” in their earlier decision, The Hill reported.
Earlier this month, the director of the Michigan Bureau of Elections informed West’s campaign that he was disqualified from the ballot due to “defects in the notarization” of his affidavit of identity (AOI). However, the judge’s order stated that these defects in the AOIs “cannot serve as a mechanism to exclude them from the ballot.”
West hailed the court’s decision in a statement.
“This ruling is not just a legal victory—it is a moral victory for everyone who believes in the sanctity of the democratic process,” he said. “Our campaign submitted over 26,000 signatures, significantly more than required, which the court recognized as a legitimate expression of the people’s will.”
“We are grateful for this affirmation and promise to continue championing the rights of all voters,” he noted further.
In June, West’s campaign announced it had gathered enough signatures to qualify for the ballot in Michigan. This recent decision follows his success in securing ballot access in several states, including Maine, earlier this month. Despite these gains, West remains a long shot for the White House, consistently polling around 1 percent.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. suspended his campaign on Friday and endorsed former President Donald Trump..
The independent candidate was only polling at around 5 percent nationwide but in a tight contest between the two main candidates that minor percentage could be what decides the presidency, The New York Post reported.
“Most of Kennedy’s left-leaning support had already dispersed to Harris,” Cook Political Report senior editor and elections analyst Dave Wasserman said to The Post. “So this could represent a meaningful benefit for Trump.”
“We’re talking probably a fraction of a point in our survey from August in battleground states,” he said. “Forty-six percent of RFK supporters went with Trump in a two-way race, 26% went with Harris and Kennedy’s support had collapsed from 8% to 5% nationally.”
“Campaigns would spend hundreds of millions of dollars for a fraction of a point given how tight the margins are in these battleground states,” he said as he referenced the tiny margins in 2020, particularly in Arizona and Georgia.
“RFKs endorsement won’t move all his supporters to Trump,” he said. “We’re in a very volatile environment right now and it could remain that way through the election.”
Chris Lane, a pollster for Cygnal, said that “among swing voters who will ultimately decide this election, 16% indicated they were going to vote for RFK.”
“With margins in battleground states being razor-thin, that 16% could represent the difference between winning and losing a state,” he said. “If RFK encourages his supporters to vote for Trump, it could have a massive impact and change the calculus for both Trump and Harris, especially in battleground states.”
“Add in the fact that those 16% are more center-right than anything, and will ultimately add to Trump’s ballot share,” he said. “Our data shows 4:1, these swing voters were more likely to call themselves conservatives than liberals.”
“It’s probably worth about 1% for Trump and that 1% could be everything if it’s in the swing states. In the end, the reason why Kennedy was drawing 10, 12, even as high as 14% is because he was taking votes away from Joe Biden. Joe Biden’s gone. Kamala Harris has replaced him, and [RFK’s] vote collapsed down to about 4 or 5% and what’s left is a Trump vote,” the pollster said when he appeared on NewsNation.
