On Friday, the Nevada Supreme Court granted Democrats’ request to deny the left-leaning Green Party the ability to appear on the state’s 2024 presidential ballot.
In a 5-2 decision, the Silver State’s highest court agreed with state Democrats’ claims that the Green Party used incorrect affidavit language on its signature petition. The ruling reverses a decision issued by a state district court last month that dismissed state Democrats’ attempt to disqualify the third party from appearing on the 2024 ballot.
“The Green Party did not substantially comply with the requirements for circulator affidavits, and thus, the Green Party’s signatures must be invalidated,” the court’s majority wrote.
As noted by dissenting Justices Kristina Pickering and Douglas Herndon, however, the affidavit form used by the Green Party was the same version recommended by the office of Nevada Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar, a Democrat. According to the justices, the Green Party sent its petition to the secretary’s office when starting to collect signatures to gain ballot access and was subsequently told by an office official the “documents [they] may have [appear to be] an older version.”
The documents provided by the secretary’s office “contained the wrong circulator affidavit, specifically the one used for circulating initiative or referendum petitions, instead of the correct circulator affidavit for minor party petitions for ballot access,” Herndon wrote. “The Green Party was not merely provided an incorrect form, rather, they were affirmatively told by the Secretary of State’s office that the correct form the Green Party
