Activist Cornel West booted from Michigan presidential ballot
In a letter dated Friday, Michigan’s elections chief said West’s affidavit of identity was not properly notarized.
Dr. Cornel West appears at a Bernie Sanders event on Martin Luther King Jr. Day in Birmingham, Ala., in January 2016.
The Michigan Bureau of Elections notified the independent presidential campaign of progressive political activist and academic Cornel West that a faulty legal document will keep him off the state’s November ballot.
In a letter dated Friday, Michigan’s elections chief said West’s affidavit of identity was not properly notarized.
“For the reasons described below, the Department is required by law to disqualify you, and the Department will not certify you as candidate on ballots for the November 5, 2024 general election,” said the letter signed by Michigan Elections Director Jonathan Brater.
The affidavit was filled out and mailed to Michigan from Colorado. The Michigan Bureau of Elections’ letter outlined four technical violations under Colorado law that, because of reciprocity between states, meant the affidavit had not been property notarized. Brater said Michigan law is strict on this point.
The letter said West did not reply to an earlier request to respond to the state’s determination, but still gave the campaign another five days following the notification to do so. The bureau did not make determinations on other challenges filed by a Michigan Democratic Party activist.
The West campaign said the Michigan Democratic Party and the Democratic National Committee are behind the action, which it said is based on “trivial technicalities being weaponized to distract from substantive policy debates.”
West spokesperson Edwin DeJesus said the campaign is preparing a court challenge.
“We are confident that these accusations will be seen for what they are—frivolous and unfounded attempts to stifle opposition and debate,” he said in an email to the Michigan Public Radio Network.
One of the organizations involved in the challenge said it is not a trivial matter.
“Candidates who play by the rules should be on the ballot, but Cornel West is blatantly not playing by the rules, in Michigan or anywhere else,” said Pete Kavanaugh of Clear Choice Action in an e-mail. He said the point of notarization is to ensure signers of legal documents understand them and are abiding by the law.
“Michigan made the appropriate decision based on the facts,” he said.
The race between Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, and former President and Republican nominee Donald Trump is expected to be very close in the swing state of Michigan. Independent and third party candidates could play a role in determining the outcome.
