A federal judge has turned down Cornel West's request to be included on the presidential ballot in the key battleground state of Pennsylvania, expressing sympathy for his claim but saying it's too close to Election Day to make changes.
U.S. District Judge J. Nicholas Ranjan said in an order issued late Thursday that he has 'serious concerns" about how Pennsylvania Secretary of State Al Schmidt is applying restrictions in state election code to West.
"The laws, as applied to him and based on the record before the court, appear to be designed to restrict ballot access to him and other non-major political candidates for reasons that are not entirely weighty or tailored, and thus appear to run afoul of the U.S. Constitution," Ranjan wrote.
West, a liberal academic currently serving as professor of philosophy and Christian practice at Union Theological Seminary in New York, would likely draw far more votes away from Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris than from the Republican candidate, former President Donald Trump. West's lawyers in the case have deep Republican ties.
"If this case had been brought earlier, the result, at least on the present record, may have been different," Ranjan wrote in turning down the request for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction.
