Alito denies Cornel West bid for intervention in Pennsylvania ballot access dispute

Washington — Justice Samuel Alito on Thursday rejected a request from progressive activist Cornel West to direct Pennsylvania election officials to post notices informing voters at polling locations statewide on Election Day that West is a presidential candidate and his name can be written in on ballots.

West, a third-party candidate for the presidency, sought emergency relief from the nation's highest court Wednesday, less than a week before Election Day and as more than 1.5 million voters in Pennsylvania have already cast their ballots by mail.

As the Nov. 5 election draws near, the Supreme Court has been asked to intervene in a growing number of disputes. Just this week, it rejected a bid by independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., to have his name removed from the Wisconsin and Michigan ballots, and allowed Virginia officials to resume a program to remove from its voter rolls roughly 1,600 people that the state suspects are noncitizens.