Wisconsin voters will have eight presidential candidates from which to choose in November after the Wisconsin Elections Commission set the state’s ballot on Tuesday.
Notably, it looks like Robert F. Kennedy, Junior —who basically halted his independent candidacy last Friday and told supporters to vote for Republican Donald Trump in battleground states like Wisconsin— will remain on the Wisconsin ballot.
That’s even though the three Republican appointees to the Commission argued in favor of removing Kennedy, as the candidate requested following Friday’s announcement.
Commission member Don Millis said that, prior to a ballot vote, there should be no problem with adjusting which names go before voters.
“I think after we have acted, that’s a different situation because clerks have to print ballots, and we don’t want people being arbitrary or willy-nilly withdrawing at that point. But before we set the ballot, it seems to me to make sense to allow a candidate to withdraw," Millis said.
He added that he was struggling because state law indicates that if a candidate is in good standing, the only way off the ballot is to die.
Elections Commission Chair Ann Jacobs, a Democrat from Milwaukee, interrupted Millis and read him the law: “The name of that person shall appear on the ballot, except in case of death of the person.“
“I know,” Mills said.
Jacobs continued: “I know, but you’re giving me this touchy-feely like, 'I feel this shouldn’t be the law.' The law in this case is crystal clear. They can’t withdraw," Jacobs emphasized.
After a motion to remove Kennedy failed on a 3-3 vote, Millis joined another Republican and the three Democrats on the commission to keep Kennedy on the ballot.
Kennedy has said he doesn’t want to be a spoiler in the presidential contest, but Democrats would like it just fine if he spoils Trump’s election day.
But Democrats did not win every decision on Tuesday. They failed in another attempt to keep Green Party Presidential candidate Jill Stein off the ballot. They lost an effort to deny a spot to independent Cornel West and his running mate Melina Abdullah, who Democrats fear may siphon votes from their party’s ticket of Kamala Harris and Tim Walz.
West’s attorney, Oliver Hall, scolded some of the Democrats for basically fighting over what he said was maybe a missing staple on the notarized, submitted candidate papers signed by many people.
“So that’s what this really comes down to, whether 6,062 Wisconsin voters will be disenfranchised on the basis of a missing staple. That may or may not have been there originally," Hall said.
The Commission then voted 5 -1 to keep West on the ballot —joining Stein, Kennedy, Harris, Trump, Libertarian Chase Oliver, the Constitution Party’s Randall Terry, and Claudia De la Cruz of the Socialism and Liberation Party as Wisconsin ballot options for president in November.
