Wisconsin Elections Commission approves third-party candidates for the ballot

A day after the state Supreme Court dismissed a challenge to remove Green Party candidate Jill Stein from the ballot in Wisconsin, the bipartisan Wisconsin Elections Commission confirmed she will appear on November ballots in the battleground state.

The commission on Tuesday also kept independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. on the ballot, though he has suspended his presidential campaign and endorsed former President Donald Trump. While he has tried to remove his name from the ballot in battleground states, Wisconsin law does not allow for Kennedy to retract his nomination at this point.

Wisconsin election commissioners also approved independent candidate Cornel West for the ballot after rejecting a challenge that argued his declarations of candidacy were not properly filed due to notarization issues. A Democratic National Committee employee filed that challenge, and another against Stein.

More: How Democrats are seeking to block 3rd party candidates from Wisconsin’s ballot

In the latest Marquette University Law School poll released in early August and before Kennedy dropped out, Vice President Kamala Harris had a two-point lead over Trump when third-party candidates were factored in. Polling for Kennedy has declined to 8% from double digits earlier in the year, and other third-party candidates are polling at 1% or less in Wisconsin.

Here’s what to know about WEC’s action, and why third-party candidates will appear on the ballot in Wisconsin.

Will Jill Stein be on the ballot in Wisconsin?

The Wisconsin Elections Commission approved Stein for the ballot on Tuesday. Back in February, the commission cleared the way for allowing candidates from the Green Party to appear on Wisconsin’s ballot.

On Monday, the Wisconsin Supreme Court also declined to hear a challenge to Stein’s inclusion on the ballot. But WEC chairwoman Ann Jacobs anticipated there would be further lawsuits over the inclusion of the Green Party on the ballot.

“This is a big win against the anti-Democratic Party’s war on democracy and voter choice,” Stein said in a statement Monday. “The Democrats constantly preach about ‘saving democracy,’ when in reality they’ve been doing everything they can to crush democracy by trying to remove the Green Party and others from the ballot.”

The Republican Party of Wisconsin also viewed the court’s decision as a win. “If Democrats hope to win over voters, they will have to do so through earnest persuasion instead of disqualification,” state party chairman Brian Schimming said in a statement.

Will RFK Jr. be on the ballot in Wisconsin?

Kennedy’s name will remain on Wisconsin’s ballot, though he is no longer running for president as an independent and has thrown his support behind Trump. That means votes could still be cast for him in Wisconsin.

After his exit from the race, Kennedy has moved to remove his name from ballots in several battleground states, such as Arizona, where he believes his “presence would be a spoiler.” Kennedy also filed that request with Wisconsin election commissioners.

But Wisconsin law says that anyone who files nomination papers and qualifies to appear on the ballot — which Kennedy did — cannot decline nomination. That person will appear on the ballot “except in case of death of the person.”

Multiple commissioners raised questions about Kennedy’s request and noted the ballot had not yet been set — it was the point of the meeting. But the commission voted 5-1 to keep Kennedy on the ballot, with Republican appointee Bob Spindell casting the only “no” vote.

Don Millis, a Republican appointee to the commission, said the statute was “troubling for me.”

“Before we set the ballot, it seems to me that it makes sense to allow a candidate to withdraw, and that’s what I’m struggling with,” Millis said.

But other commissioners said there was no room for discretion with the statute. “The only way he gets to not be on the ballot is to up and die, which I’m assuming he has no plans on doing,” Jacobs said. “The statute is absolutely clear on this.”

“I think we got to follow the law on this. We get sued enough. This one is clearly an invitation to get sued again,” Mark Thomsen, a Democratic appointee to the commission, said.

More: What to know about Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s bid to get on Wisconsin’s presidential ballot

Will Cornel West be on the ballot in Wisconsin?

The commission also approved independent candidate Cornel West to appear on Wisconsin’s ballot.

Earlier in the meeting, the commission heard a challenge to his inclusion on the ballot related to his and running mate Melina Abdullah’s declarations of candidacy and disputes over notarizing the documents.

WEC commissioners rejected that challenge 5-1, with Jacobs casting the only “no” vote and explaining she thought West should appear on the ballot but not Abdullah due to notary issues with her forms.

West’s candidacy was boosted in Wisconsin by Trump allies who believe third-party candidates could help the former president’s chances in November. Four individuals employed at a Republican-aligned political canvasing firm worked as circulators to gather signatures in support of West in Wisconsin, USA TODAY reported.

More: Cornel West boosted by Trump allies to get name on Wisconsin ballot

Who are the presidential candidates on the Wisconsin ballot?

After the Wisconsin Elections Commission’s actions Tuesday, the following presidential and vice presidential names will appear on the ballot in the Nov. 5 election:

Major party candidates

• Kamala D. Harris and Tim Walz, Democratic party
• Donald J. Trump and JD Vance, Republican party
• Randall Terry and Stephen Broden, Constitution party
• Chase Russell Oliver and Mike ter Maat, Libertarian party
• Jill Stein and Butch Ware, Wisconsin Green party

Independent candidates

• Cornel West and Melina Abdullah, Justice For All party
• Claudia De la Cruz and Karina Garcia, Party for Socialism and Liberation
• Robert F. Kennedy and Nicole Shanahan, We The People party

President Joe Biden was able to be replaced on the ballot after dropping out of the presidential race in July, because the deadline to place him on the ballot had not yet passed. The deadline for parties to certify their candidates’ names with WEC is Sept. 3.

Some voters in Wisconsin will receive ballots with the names soon: The deadline for clerks to send absentee ballots to voters with requests on file is Sept. 19.

More: The deadline has not passed in Wisconsin to replace Biden on the ballot. Here’s why.

What do polls show about third-party candidates in Wisconsin?

In the Marquette University Law School poll released earlier this month, Kennedy stood at 8% among registered voters, a drop from 13% and 16% in earlier months. Stein polled at 1% in that poll, and West at less than 0.5%. Libertarian candidate Chase Oliver also polled at 1%.

Poll director Charles Franklin this week noted more Republicans than Democrats supported Kennedy and said Kennedy’s decision to endorse Trump would “probably” bring those Republicans back behind the former president.

The survey earlier this month found 21% of independents support Kennedy, Franklin noted, and the tendencies of third-party voters are difficult to predict.

“We find that they don’t go 100% to sort of their natural affinity group,” Franklin said of Kennedy voters potentially supporting Trump. “And part of that is because the reason they’re voting for Kennedy in the first place is they don’t like Donald Trump. If they liked Donald Trump, they would have been voting for him to begin with.”

“Some of them will drop out,” Franklin said. “Some of them might switch to another third-party candidate, some might not vote at all because, as a group, they’re pretty disaffected with government.”

Franklin added of the third-party influence in Wisconsin: “Bottom line is I’m not expecting a big shift.” He said Stein and West’s presence on the ballot would likely draw votes from Harris. 

Stein last appeared on Wisconsin’s ballot in 2016, receiving more than 31,000 votes in Wisconsin, which many believe could have helped Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. A couple thousand votes can determine elections in battleground Wisconsin: In 2020, Biden won the state by just over 20,000 votes, similar to Trump’s margin over Clinton four years earlier.

Franklin plans to put a new poll into the field on Wednesday without Kennedy’s name mentioned in the multi-candidate race.

He said the poll would ask a separate question about support for Kennedy if he had remained in the race.

“It’s complicated when somebody has said he’s no longer a candidate but his name is still there,” Franklin said.