Cornel West’s name will remain on Maine’s presidential ballot despite concerns raised during a public hearing last week that voters were tricked into signing nomination papers for the former Harvard University professor.

Cornel West. Alex Brandon/Associated Press

Secretary of State Shenna Bellows said in a decision released Tuesday night that some signatures were gathered fraudulently and were discarded, but it was not enough to disqualify West from the ballot as an independent candidate.

“The bad actions of one should not impugn the valid First Amendment rights of the many,” Bellows said in a written statement.

West’s candidacy was challenged by three voters: Nathan Berger of Portland, Anne Gass of Gray and Sandra Marquis of Lewiston. They argued that West should not appear on Maine’s ballot for a variety of reasons, including submitting too many signatures in violation of state law and other issues that they said should invalidate thousands of other signatures, which would put him below the 4,000 needed to qualify.

Gass and Marquis also accused those circulating West’s petitions of deceiving people by claiming the petition was to prohibit federal officials from trading stocks and not mentioning West. Three voters testified in support of that accusation at a hearing last week and eight other signed written statements.

“While other states across the country may direct election officials to exclude voters from duly participating in our elections processes on the basis of scrivener’s quibbles, Maine does not,” Bellows said. “Our election laws are grounded in encouraging full and fair voter participation, and the registrars acted appropriately in certifying signatures for voters that they could verify regardless of whether a voter signed with a nickname or dated the petition with the day and month only.”

The challengers also argued that Maine law sets a 5,000 limit on the maximum number of signatures that can be submitted to the state for verification, and circulators exceeded that limit by submitting 5,983 signatures. But Bellows interpreted the state law as limiting the number that election officials must review, not how many can be turned in.

“As a result, the Elections Division properly declined to count the additional petitions … once it determined that the West Campaign had reached approximately 5,000 valid signatures,” Bellows said. “No further consequences to the Campaign are required or permitted.”

The challengers can appeal Bellows’ decision to Superior Court. Attorneys representing the challengers did not immediately respond to questions about whether they would appeal.

Nobody accused the West campaign of directing the petition effort. Campaign officials said they didn’t have enough money to hire signature-gathers and instead have been using a grassroots, decentralized campaign, making petitions available for downloading on their website, allowing anyone to collect signatures on behalf of the campaign. That made it difficult for the campaign to control what was happening on the ground.

At least one petition circulator said they were paid by an outside group not affiliated with the campaign to collect signatures. State Rep. Grayson Lookner, D-Portland, said he supports West and worked to put him on the ballot because Maine’s system of ranked choice voting would prohibit West from being a spoiler to Harris.

Nevertheless, Lookner stopped collecting signatures when he learned that similar efforts to get West on the ballots in other states were linked to Republicans trying to erode support for the Democratic presidential nominee.

The challenges aimed at disqualifying West appear to be part of a nationwide effort by Clear Choice Action, a group led by allies of President Biden, to prevent a third-party spoiler in what is expected to be a very tight presidential race. The Washington Post reported that the group planned to “develop research and push storylines in the media” to discourage people from voting for third-party candidates.

A similar challenge was filed against Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., but it was withdrawn shortly before last week’s hearing.

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