Court: Green Party Stays On PA Ballot – Dems To Appeal
AP reported yesterday that “Democrats on Thursday signaled their intent to appeal a lower court decision ordering election officials to put the Green Party’s candidate for president on the ballot in the battleground state of Pennsylvania.
They filed an intent to appeal the case to the state Supreme Court, where the Democratic majority-panel will could decide the last remaining legal hangup before ballots can be mailed out to voters who applied for one.
The Democrats’ protest targets what they say are disqualifying irregularities in how the Green Party candidates for president and vice president filed affidavits that accompany paperwork to get them on the ballot.”
According to the Inquirer, the Democratic Party did not actually file the challenge to the Green Party’s petition. The Inquirer reported that, “The challenge was filed by Pittsburgh attorney Clifford Levine, who has done legal work for the Pennsylvania Democratic Party. Levine’s clients are Paul Stefano, chair of the Lawrence County Democratic Party, and Tony Thomas, who ran as a Democrat for City Council in Wilkes-Barre last year.
Asked if the state Democratic Party was backing the challenge, Levine this week said “They’re aware of it.” The state Democratic Party did not respond to requests for comment.”
Commonwealth Court Judge J. Andrew Crompton, a Republican, issued the ruling, which for the time being enables Green Party Presidential Candidate Howie Hawkins to appear on the Pennsylvania ballot on Election Day.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court, which has been known on occasion to vote along party lines, is made up of up five Democrats and two Republicans.
Democrats Overly Cautious?
In 2016, Green Party Candidate Jill Stein received 49,941 votes in Pennsylvania. Donald Trump won the state’s 20 Electoral Votes with a margin of only 44,292 votes over Hillary Clinton. However, it would be a stretch to say that Clinton would have won Pennsylvania if Stein had not been on the ballot. That would presume that the vast majority of Pennsylvania’s 2016 Green Party voters would have voted for Clinton if they did not have the option of voting for Stein.
The presumption that in 2016, Stein was a spoiler for Clinton in Wisconsin, is only slightly more plausible than it was in Pennsylvania. With a little help from Stein, who got 31,072 votes there, Trump nudged out Clinton by 22,748 votes.
Michigan, the third state in the Democrats so-called former firewall, was a whole other story. Trump won that state by a scant 10,704 votes. Stein received 51,463 votes in Michigan. Without Stein on the ballot in Michigan, Trump’s Electoral College “landslide” of 304-227, would probably have reduced to 288-243.
If the current polling holds up through Election Day (and when have the pollsters ever been wrong?), the Democrats’ effort to keep the Green Party off the Pennsylvania ballot, might be compared to wearing a belt and suspenders. Real Clear Politics average of all polls has Joe Biden with a 4.3% advantage over President Trump. If turnout in Pennsylvania is close to what it was four years ago, a 4.3% margin would translate to plurality for Biden of more than 250,000 voters.
2016 Election ResultsIn Lower Merion and Narberth
Compared to her statewide showing, where she received .82% of the vote, Stein underperformed in Lower Merion and Narberth. The same was true for Libertarian Candidate Gary Johnson, who won 2.4% of the statewide vote, but took 2.08% of the vote in Narberth and only 1.8% of the Lower Merion vote.