Judge Overrides Democrat Efforts to Keep Cornel West off North Carolina Ballot

Cornel West, who is running in the presidential election as a third-party candidate, will appear on the ballot in North Carolina after all, the watchdog group Fair Election Fund announced.

In a press release, Fair Election Fund “praised the Eastern District Court of North Carolina’s ruling to overturn the State Board of Elections’ anti-democratic ruling and allow Cornel West on the November ballot.” This decision came after Democrats on the North Carolina State Board of Elections (NCSBE) voted on more than one occasion against certifying West to appear on the ballot despite him garnering thousands of signatures from voters.

Per the emailed press release:

The Court’s decision comes after three Democrats on the NCSBE voted multiple times in recent weeks against certifying Cornel West’s political party, Justice for All, as an option on the ballot in North Carolina. A group of North Carolina voters filed a lawsuit last week to overturn the NCSBE’s vote, and today were victorious in their appeal.

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Since May, The Fair Election Fund has spent $375,000 on paid media efforts targeting the three Democrats on the NCSBE for their efforts to keep Cornel West off the ballot.

Former Rep. Doug Collins (R-GA), who serves as a Fair Election Fund senior adviser, praised the decision as a “win for democracy and major blow to the national voter suppression effort being deployed by the Democratic Party.”

“After being bullied by the Biden-Harris political machine, the Democrats on the NCSBE attempted to silence the voices and voting rights of North Carolina voters who worked to get Cornel West on the ballot – today’s ruling puts the power back in the people’s hands,” he said, adding that Fair Election Fund “worked tirelessly to expose the NCSBE and national Democrats’ collusion to keep Cornel West off of the ballot, and this is just the beginning.”

He said the watchdog group will continue to “shine a light on the Democrats’ election interference schemes in other key swing states across the country like my home state of Georgia and stop their attempts to block competition and block your voting rights.”

The decision comes as Democrats worry about the effect third-party candidates will have on the race, as polls suggest third-party candidates — who are leftist in nature — actually hurt Democrats, not former President Donald Trump.

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@jayjamonbread via Storyful

A Trafalgar Group survey examining the race in the swing state of  North Carolina shows Trump edging out Vice President Kamala Harris by four points — 49 percent to her 45 percent. Another three percent support independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and 1.3 percent support “others” — the category, in this case, that West would fall into.

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