Green Party ballot access case likely decided Tuesday

(The Center Square) – One of the lawyers challenging the effort from national Democrats to keep the Green Party off the Wisconsin ballot thinks the case could be decided in a matter of days.

Skylar Croy was on News Talk 1130 WISN Friday and said the Wisconsin Supreme Court’s decision to fast track the case likely means a decision by Tuesday.

“I suspect that if they're going to do this, they're going to move very, very quickly,” Croy said. “The way the argument has been framed by the Democrats is that on Tuesday August 27th the Wisconsin Elections Commission is going to meet and they're going to hold a vote. And the Democrats say ‘We know how that vote is going to go down. They're going to add the Green Party to the ballot,’.”

Croy is quick to say that’s not what happened four years ago. The Wisconsin Elections Commission denied the Green Party a spot on the 2020 ballot because of a paperwork issue.

In 2016, the Green Party made the ballot.

Croy said there is a chance this case ends up before the U.S. Supreme Court because the Democrats’ argument goes beyond the usual constitutional test for ballot access.

“They're basically saying that in addition to the requirements laid out in the U.S. Constitution, which are [a candidate] has to be 35-years-old, 14 years of resident of the United States.and the natural born citizen, they are basically adding a fourth requirement because of their interpretation. That fourth requirement is you got to be a Republican or a Democrat,” Croy explained. “That's insane. That's really disappointing to see that A, the Democrats did this, and B, there's a chance that there’s a significant chance that the Wisconsin Supreme Court is going to go along with this.”

Croy said he hopes the U.S. Supreme Court sees this case in the same vein as the Colorado case that sought to keep former President Trump off the ballot. The high court rejected Colorado’s argument that it could add ballot requirements of its own.

Croy expects the case in Wisconsin to be decided by Tuesday but isn’t saying when the U.S. Supreme Court could take it up.

The deadline to print ballots for Wisconsin’s November election is Sept. 19, when local election clerks can begin to mail absentee ballots in the state.