The Supreme Court's ballot ruling is absurd. They don't care. [View all]

[Nevilledog]

https://www.publicnotice.co/p/scotus-ballot-ruling-trump-colorado-explained

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States make decisions about ballot eligibility all the time

Across all three opinions, all nine justices bought into the incorrect notion that allowing states to determine ballot eligibility is positively unheard of and somehow encroaches upon the province of the federal government: “The result could well be that a single candidate would be declared ineligible in some States, but not others, based on the same conduct (and perhaps even the same factual record).”

The opinion frets about a “patchwork” of state election laws arising and disrupting uniform ballot access. But states have always set their own eligibility requirements for presidential candidates to appear on the ballot. That’s not merely a tradition that evolved over time. Rather, it is grounded in Article I, Section 4 of the Constitution — the states and elections clause. The states’ ability to set their own ballot requirements, including for president, means that some candidates will indeed be on the ballot in some states and not others.

For example, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is currently scrambling to get on the ballot in multiple states, having formed his own political party, “We the People.” For him to get on the ballot under that banner in California and Delaware would require him to get people to register with that new political party. In North Carolina and Hawaii, the new party is not formed until a certain number of registered voters sign up. In Texas, RFK Jr. needs tens of thousands of people to participate in precinct conventions. Kennedy may not succeed in his efforts in all states, meaning he will appear on some state ballots but not others.

There’s another reason it’s rich to see the conservatives on the Court suddenly very eager to declare that the federal government, not the states, should have the most authority regarding elections. That’s because, under Chief Justice John Roberts, those same conservatives have gleefully dismantled the Voting Rights Act by asserting that the federal government can’t possibly tell the states what to do when it comes to voting.

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