Green Party affirmed for Nevada ballot, creating spoiler opportunity

by Nick Robertson - 08/12/24 10:02 PM ET

Former Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein waits to speak at a board of elections meeting at City Hall, in Philadelphia, Oct. 2, 2019. Stein was the Green Party nominee in 2012 and 2016, and the physician and environmental activist is now making a third try. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)

The Green Party will appear on Nevada’s presidential ballot in November, a state judge ruled Monday, tossing out an appeal from state Democrats and setting up the potential for the third party to bleed votes from Vice President Harris.

The Green Party has not appeared on Nevada ballots since 2008. Its 2024 petition for ballot access was challenged by the state Democratic Party, which claimed some of the submitted signatures were invalid.

Carson City District Court Judge Kristin Luis ruled Monday that the challenge was not enough to disqualify the Green Party from the ballot.

“The Democratic Party has not met its burden of demonstrating that the petition is clearly invalid because it has not produced sufficient evidence to show that the petition has less than the required number of valid signatures in any petition district,” she wrote.

The ruling comes just two weeks before the filing deadline for third parties in Nevada.

Green Party candidate Jill Stein celebrated the ruling in a post Monday.

“In June, the NV Dems sued the Nevada Green Party to kick us off the ballot – after we submitted nearly 3x the required signatures,” Stein wrote on Facebook. “We are excited to say that the ruling has been made in our favor and we will offer an anti-genocide, pro-worker, climate action choice for Silver State voters!”

The Green Party presence in Nevada could threaten what is expected to be a thin margin in the November election.

In previous races, Democrats have blasted the Green Party for taking away a small portion of voters in races where every vote counts. That includes the 2016 election in Wisconsin, where Stein received more votes than the winning margin of former President Trump over former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

In limited, head-to-head polling of the Nevada race between Trump and Harris, Trump leads Harris by 2.4 percent, according to The Hill/Decision Desk HQ average of polls. No poll included in the average has included Stein.