Michigan judge reverses state ruling, says Cornel West eligible for presidential ballot

LANSING — Independent presidential candidate Cornel West is eligible to have his name appear on the Nov. 5 ballot, a Michigan judge ruled over the weekend.

Michigan Court of Claims Judge James Robert Redford on Saturday ordered the names of West and his running mate Melina Abdullah to be included on Michigan's presidential ballot. Redford said they had easily met the requirement of filing at least 12,000 eligible signatures.

Attorney Mark Brewer, a former chair of the Michigan Democratic Party who had challenged West's eligibility, said Monday that he filed an appeal to Redford's ruling, with the Michigan Court of Appeals, Sunday night. Brewer represents Rosa Holliday, a Michigan voter, in the ballot eligibility dispute. The state will also be filing an appeal, a spokeswoman said.

West is a civil rights activist and philosopher who has taught at Harvard and other U.S. universities. Politically, he has described himself as a "non-Marxist socialist."

Redford's order overturned a contrary ruling made by the Michigan Bureau of Elections under Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, a Democrat.

Jonathan Brater, Michigan's elections director, told the West campaign Aug. 16 that he was disqualified from the Michigan ballot because of defects in his affidavit of identity, which was filed with the state along with the required number of petition signatures. Brater's letter said there were several defects in the affidavit, including unfilled blanks on the form, the notary's public stamp being sent on a separate sheet of paper and the notary failing to identify what specific notarial act she was engaged in.

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But Redford ruled that under state law, West as an independent candidate was not required to file an affidavit of identity along with his signatures, making any deficiencies in that affidavit irrelevant.

The Michigan Democratic Party had challenged West's eligibility.

Also on Monday, the Board of State Canvassers voted 3-1 to certify West for the ballot after hearing concerns from Brewer and others that thousands of the signatures West submitted were fraudulent. The board's vote upheld the position of the Bureau of Elections that West filed the required number of valid signatures.

The board did not weigh in on the affidavit issue Monday. The Bureau of Elections and the Department of State still intend to appeal Redford's ruling on the affidavit issue, department spokeswoman Angela Benander said after the board meeting.

Brewer said after the meeting he will file a separate appeal on the issue of allegedly forged signatures.

Polls show West to be not much of a factor in the presidential race in Michigan or nationally, averaging less than 1% support, though it is not clear whether the recent withdrawal from the race of independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who has endorsed former President Donald Trump, could change that.

According to a map compiled by the New York Times, West is on the ballot in just five states: Alaska, Colorado, South Carolina, Oregon and Vermont.

Contact Paul Egan: 517-372-8660 or pegan@freepress.com. Follow him on X, @paulegan4.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan judge reverses state ruling, says Cornel West eligible for presidential ballot