Third parties could play a lesser role in 2020 campaign
JOHNSTOWN, Pa. โ In close elections, it doesn't take much for third-party candidates to play an outsize role โ as Democrats learned the hard way in 2016. A vital third-party candidate would likely help him tremendously.โBut third-party candidates are facing hurdles that didn't exist four years ago, potentially weakening their impact. In a court decision last week, the Green Party candidate was barred from appearing on Pennsylvaniaโs ballot. โI saw last time, thereโs no hope in a third-party candidate in this basically two-party system that we have. But the presidentโs team, which has denied playing a role in Westโs bid, has done little game-planning for a third-party candidate.
Pennsylvania Democrats notch key election-related court wins
The state Supreme Court, which has a 5-2 Democratic majority, granted the Democratic Partyโs request to order an extension of Pennsylvaniaโs Election Day deadline to count mailed-in ballots. The rulings came amid a flurry of partisan lawsuits and a partisan stalemate over fixing gray areas and glitches exposed during a test-run of Pennsylvania's mail-in voting law during June 2's primary election. Losing Pennsylvania could prove fatal to Bidenโs chances of defeating Trump: No Democrat has won the presidency without winning Pennsylvania since Harry S. Truman in 1948. Democrats and liberal groups cheered the court's decisions on the mail-in voting law. Mail-in voting will help โprotect our right to vote in the most critical election of our lifetimes," NextGen Pennsylvania said.
Green Party candidate is ordered off Pennsylvania ballot
The courtโs two Republicans agreed the Green Party did not meet the law's requirements, but, in a dissenting opinion, said it might be possible to allow the Green Party to fix it retroactively. In this case, Democratic party activists challenged what they said were disqualifying irregularities in how the Green Party filed affidavits for the presidential candidate that is supposed to accompany paperwork with at least 5,000 voter signatures to get on the ballot. Initially, Green Party officials faxed in an affidavit of candidacy for a placeholder candidate โ under whose nominal candidacy the party gathered the signatures โ by the Aug. 3 deadline. โAnd the court said, fax is not good enough,โ said Larry Otter, the lawyer handling the case for the Green Party. Because the placeholder candidate didn't properly submit the affidavit, Hawkins' affidavit is nullified, the majority opinion said.
Flashpoint 12/4/16: Michigan recount, Trump so far, weed wars
DETROIT This week on Flashpoint (watch episode above):It's been almost four weeks since we cast our ballots at the polls. Surely, team Trump doesn't think so, though their refusal to endorse the results before the election doesn't help their argument now. We'll talk about that this morning, and we'll rundown what we've seen so far of the Trump administration. More than half of the states now recognize marijuana as medicine, and of course that includes Michigan. My guest this morning is the new face of marijuana legalization in Michigan.