CHICAGO — The Democratic Party is campaigning on a message to defend democracy in the 2024 election but is also working to keep third-party presidential candidates off the ballots in battleground states.
Those third-party candidates say it reveals a dark truth about what the Democratic Party stands for.
“It tells us a lot about the Democratic Party. It tells us that the Democratic Party should not even have the name Democratic Party because they are an obstacle to democracy in every way,” said Claudia De la Cruz, the Party for Socialism and Liberation’s nominee for president.
“In Georgia, one of the Democratic Party leaders said they couldn’t spare any votes being taken away by a third party,” she said. “If they were to do their job and actually listen to people, they wouldn’t be afraid of losing any votes.”
Fearing the third-party candidates could swing the election away from Vice President Kamala Harris, Democratic operatives have filed legal challenges to boot them from the ballots in several key states.
At the same time, Democrats repeatedly warn of a looming threat to democracy from former President Donald Trump and other Republicans that can be stopped only by electing Democrats.
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A group of left-wing third-party candidates who gathered on the fringes of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago said the effort to derail their candidacies is anti-democratic, limiting voters’ choices and silencing voices in the arena of ideas.
Green Party presidential nominee Jill Stein said the ballot access mischief makes a “mockery” of democracy. She said the rush to install Ms. Harris at the top of the ticket after President Biden quit the race belies Democrats’ boast that they are democracy’s defenders.
She said naming Ms. Harris as the nominee without any challenges was an “extremely rigged” process.
“It’s now the Undemocratic Party or the Anti-Democratic Party,” Ms. Stein said.
Matt Corridoni, a spokesman for the Democratic National Committee, told The Washington Times that the legal moves are part of the party’s democracy defense. He accused the third-party candidates of being proxies for Mr. Trump and working solely to take votes away from Ms. Harris.
“It’s not surprising spoiler campaigns being propped by MAGA Republicans are using MAGA talking points. We’re not going to back down from making sure everyone is playing by the rules,” Mr. Corridoni said.
Democratic operatives launched two legal challenges last week to remove Ms. De la Cruz and independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. from the ballots in Pennsylvania and Georgia.
The effort is led by ClearChoice, a political action committee funded by longtime Democratic donors, including venture capitalist Ronald Conway and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman.
A Democratic Party staffer also filed a complaint with the Wisconsin Elections Commission, arguing that Ms. Stein should not be on the ballot. The complaint said the Stein campaign does not have anyone who would be allowed under state law to serve as a nominator for its presidential electors. The lack of a valid list of presidential electors would make her ineligible for the ballot.
Democrats filed a similar complaint in Nevada, but a state judge ruled that Ms. Stein can appeal on the ballot.
Democratic activists in Michigan blocked independent candidate Cornel West from appearing on the ballot, arguing that his petition didn’t have enough qualified signatures. A federal judge ruled against Mr. West, who has vowed to appeal.
Having their names on a ballot in enough states gives candidates a theoretical chance to win the Electoral College, but it also gives them political legitimacy and satisfies one of the requirements to appear on a debate stage. With the 2024 election likely to be decided by a razor-thin margin, third-party candidates could slice away votes from Ms. Harris or Mr. Trump.
Independent candidates rarely have the big-money backers that fund the major party nominees, so drowning them in expensive legal fights can cripple their campaigns.
Mr. West, an author and professor who mounted a long-shot bid as an independent candidate for president, said the Democrats’ moves taint the election.
“Victory has to be an ethically credible win in terms of the process being fair,” he said. “Well, it’s not ethically credible if you are keeping people off the ballot. It’s not the Democratic Party because they have anti-democratic sensibilities when it comes to allowing different voices on the ballot.”
Third-party spoilers are sources of dread for Democrats, whose hopes were likely dashed by also-ran candidates in 2016 and 2000.
In the 2016 election, Ms. Stein captured 1% of the national vote and Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson collected 3.3%. In swing states such as Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Florida, their combined vote totals exceeded the margin by which Mr. Trump defeated Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.
In 2000, Green Party candidate Ralph Nader won 97,488 votes in Florida, a state Republican George W. Bush won over Democrat Al Gore by 537 votes and sealed his White House victory. It’s reasonable to conclude that if Mr. Nader — who ran on an environmentalist and climate change platform — had not been on the ballot, Mr. Gore may have won Florida and the White House.
Mr. Kennedy and Ms. Stein are on ballots in roughly 20 states, Ms. De la Cruz is on the ballots in 20 states, and Mr. West is on the ballots in five states.
Ms. Stein said she is prepared to rely on a write-in campaign in multiple states.
• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.
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