Another one bites the dust. The Democrats' strategy of attempting to nitpick to death any possible threat to a Kamala Harris victory in November was most recently focused on independent candidate Cornel West in the battleground state of Pennsylvania. Just as they were met with success in getting RFK Jr. tossed off the ballot in New York on nonsensical grounds, a judge on the Commonwealth Court sided with the Democratic Secretary of State's office and booted West from the Keystone State's ballot on yet another technicality. As we will discuss in a moment, this is nothing more than a case of pure partisan politicking on display, but I suppose when you come up with a winning strategy you stick with it. (Associated Press)

Independent presidential candidate Cornel West lost a legal challenge Friday in his bid to get on the ballot in the battleground state of Pennsylvania.

Commonwealth Court Judge Renee Cohn Jubelirer, in a 15-page opinion, sided with the Secretary of State’s office under Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro in rejecting West’s candidacy paperwork.

The Secretary of State’s office said West’s campaign lacked the required affidavits for 14 of West’s 19 presidential electors.

The first thing to be aware of is that Judge Renee Cohn Jubelirer ran for her position on the court as a Republican, but that doesn't mean much these days. She has consistently come under criticism from Pennsylvania's GOP legislators for siding with liberals and progressives on a number of issues ranging from public school funding to parental rights. Part of the strategy being employed by the Democrats in all of these ballot removal cases is to shop around until you find the right judge to hear your case. If they happen to have an "R" after their name, so much the better.

When they set their sights on Cornel West, they went through his ballot application with a fine-tooth comb just as they did with RFK in New York. Failing to find any errors there, they challenged the signatures he submitted. When those passed muster, they finally went and dug into all of the paperwork for West's 19 presidential electors. That's when they hit pay dirt, finding that14 of his electors had errors on their registration forms.

So why did they choose to go after Cornel West? Isn't he "one of their people" after all these years? Well... mostly he is, yes. But Pennsylvania is still razor-close in the current polling and West draws more votes away from Harris than he does from Trump. That meant he had to go. Even the AP is reporting this story honestly enough to admit that nobody challenged Green Party candidate Jill Stein or Libertarian Party candidate Chase Oliver. Of course, both of them tend to pull disenchanted voters looking for a third-party option from Donald Trump rather than Kamala Harris. Why would the Democrats spend any time digging through their files?

The reason this strategy appears to be working is the reality that filing a bid to appear on the ballot in a presidential contest is complicated and there is a lot of annoying paperwork involved. It's the same as what any competent CPA will tell you about tax returns. If you begin poring over people's tax returns closely enough, even the most basic, short-form filings, you will find a certain number that contain some minor errors. Typically, nobody pays attention to them if the rest of the information is honestly presented. Cornel West is a well-known figure in American politics at this point. There is no question as to his identity or the fact that he meets the scant minimum requirements to be elected president. His electors were all lined up and ready to cast their votes for him in the wildly unlikely event that he actually carried the state of Pennsylvania. But this was never about his electors or the signatures he collected or anything else. This was all about taking West off the ballot by hook or by crook. West can still appeal this decision to the state Supreme Court if he wishes, but at least for now, The Democrats' strategy of nitpicking has succeeded again.