The Nevada Green Party on Friday asked the US Supreme Court to weigh into an election dispute with potentially significant implications in the presidential battleground, asking the high court to pause a state court ruling that would keep candidate Jill Stein off the ballot.
Green Party candidates were “ripped from the ballot,” according to the emergency appeal and “Nevadans who would vote for them in this election are robbed of the opportunity to do so.”
The Green Party is being represented by Jay Sekulow, one of former President Donald Trump’s personal attorneys.
The emergency appeal follows a decision from Nevada’s high court last week that found the Green Party used an incorrect form when collecting signatures to get their candidates’ names on the ballot.
The original lawsuit against the Green Party was filed by the state Democratic Party. The wrangling underscores the significance of third-party candidates on the ballot in a state where polling indicates a thin margin between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris.
Nevada’s State Democratic Party sued the state’s Green Party to keep Stein off the ballot, arguing that the Green Party had used the wrong form to collect and submit the signatures needed to get this candidate on the ballot.
A lower court in the state sided with the Green Party, but the Nevada Supreme Court ruled this month that Stein should be kept off the ballot, holding that the Green Party “did not substantially comply with the requirements” that needed to be met to get Stein on the ballot.
The state Supreme Court said in its ruling that an “unfortunate mistake” had occurred when the Nevada secretary of state’s office provided the Green Party with the incorrect form used in the signature collection process.
The application was filed with Justice Elena Kagan, who handles emergency cases arising from some of the nation’s Western states. Kagan requested a response in the case by Tuesday.
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