What has Happened?

On July 14 2020 a complaint was filed in the US District Court, Northern District of Georgia. Four African-American voters in Fulton County Georgia sued the Georgia Secretary of State for violation of the Voting Rights Act claiming that the way Georgia conducts its elections for Public Service Commissioner disadvanteges black voters. You can read the complaint here. Please take a few moments to read this complaint, it is only eleven pages and not a difficult read.

On August 5 2022 the above mentioned court found for the Plaintiffs and enjoined the Secretary of State from including Public Service Commissioner elections on the ballot. This cancelled the Public Commissioner District 2 election that was scheduled for 2022. You can read the complete decision here.

The effect this would have on our ability to earn ballot access in the 2024 elections was immediately clear. Being a Presidential election year would normally include Public Service Commissioner (PSC) elections. Cancelling the PSC elections leaves us with only the Presidential election to earn ballot access. The LP of Georgia has met the vote threshold for our ballot access in only one Presidential election, Gary Johnson in 2016.

The situation changed on November 23 2023 when the decision to enjoin was reversed on appeal by the US Court of Appeals, Eleventh District. This decision restored the PSC elections to their former status and it appeared that the PSC would be on the 2024 ballot, a decision favourable to our ballot access. You can view the appellate court's decision here.

Believing that there would be PSC elections in 2024 the LP of Georgia nominated two PSC candidates at our state convention on January 25 2024. On February 1 2024 we began to get the news that the Secretary of State was not qualifying the PSC elections. This was highly unusual and raised many questions. Over the next few days we learned that the appellate court's decision to reverse was being held up due to some legal moves that are currently opaque to us. We are compelled to infer that the two scheduled PSC elections will be cancelled for the 2024 General Election. We must earn our ballot access this year in the Presidential race.

We know what must be done, let's get busy.