For Democrats, there’s no better way to show your love for “democracy” than to remove your political opponents from the ballot.
That’s exactly what happened in Michigan on Friday, when the state’s Bureau of Elections abruptly disqualified left-wing presidential candidate Cornel West from appearing on the November ticket. The agency operates within the Office of Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, a Democrat.
In his letter to West’s campaign, Elections Director Jonathan Brater claimed, as USA Today described, that “the affidavits of identity submitted to the Secretary of State’s Office in June for West and his vice presidential running mate, Melina Abdullah, were not properly notarized.” Former state Democrat Party Chair Mark Brewer reportedly brought a challenge to the affidavits on July 23 as part of his work with Clear Choice Action, a Democrat-affiliated super PAC seeking to keep left-leaning third-party presidential candidates off the November ballot.
West’s campaign was first notified about the challenge on July 26 and did not respond by the Aug. 2 deadline, according to Brater.
“Your affidavit of identity was not notarized in compliance with the laws of the state where it was notarized (Colorado), and therefore is not a valid notarization under the Michigan Law on Notarial Acts,” the elections director wrote.
Brater gave the West campaign five days to file a rebuttal to the disqualification, according to USA Today.
Democrats’ bid to keep West off Michigan’s fall ballot is not an anomaly, but part of a concentrated effort to deny battleground
