You’re probably here because you stood in a voting booth, looked at that long list of names, and wondered: Wait, is Claudia De la Cruz on the ballot? Or maybe you’ve already voted and are trying to figure out why her name appeared in some places but was totally missing in others. It's confusing. Honestly, the way third-party candidates get treated in the U.S. is a mess of legal paperwork, court battles, and local rules that vary wildly from one zip code to the next.
Claudia De la Cruz, representing the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL), didn't just have one "status." Depending on where you live, she was either a legitimate option, a write-in candidate, or legally blocked from being counted at all.
Where was Claudia De la Cruz on the ballot?
The short answer is that she and her running mate, Karina Garcia, successfully made it onto the physical ballot in 19 states for the 2024 election. That’s actually a pretty big deal for a socialist party. In the previous 2020 election, the PSL was only on the ballot in 15 states. This time, they pushed harder.
If you live in California, you might have seen her name under the Peace and Freedom Party line. In South Carolina, she ran under the South Carolina Workers Party. In states like Florida, New Jersey, and Washington, she was right there alongside the big names.
But here is the catch. In many other states, she was technically a "registered write-in." This means if you wrote her name on the line, the state would actually count it. If you did that in a state where she wasn't registered, your vote basically went into a void. It's a weird system.
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The 19 states where she was officially on the ballot:
- California (as Peace and Freedom Party)
- Florida
- Hawaii
- Idaho
- Iowa
- Louisiana
- Massachusetts
- Minnesota
- Mississippi
- New Jersey
- New Mexico
- Rhode Island
- South Carolina (as South Carolina Workers Party)
- Tennessee
- Utah
- Vermont
- Virginia
- Washington
- Wisconsin
The legal drama in Georgia and Pennsylvania
Things got really messy in the swing states. In Georgia and Pennsylvania, there were huge legal fights. Initially, it looked like Claudia De la Cruz would be on the ballot in Georgia. However, the Democratic Party filed challenges. They argued that her petition signatures weren't valid or that she didn't meet specific state requirements.
Basically, the Democrats didn't want "spoiler" candidates siphoning votes from Kamala Harris. On the flip side, Republicans were often the ones trying to keep her on the ballot for the exact same reason. Politics is funny that way.
In the end, she was disqualified in Georgia and Pennsylvania. If you were in those states, you might have seen her name on the ballot anyway, but with a notice saying "Votes for this candidate will not be counted." Imagine the frustration of a voter seeing their preferred choice, only to find out it’s a ghost option.
Why it's so hard for third parties
You’ve gotta realize that the U.S. isn't really one election. It’s 50 separate elections. Each state has its own rules for how many signatures you need. In some places, you need a few thousand. In others, like California or Texas, the numbers are massive.
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For a grassroots campaign like the PSL, which doesn't take corporate money, getting those signatures is a massive lift. They rely on volunteers standing outside grocery stores in the rain. When they finally turn those papers in, the major parties hire lawyers to look at every single signature. If a "John Smith" didn't include his middle initial or his address looks messy, they try to throw it out.
What the results actually showed
Even with all the hurdles, Claudia De la Cruz pulled in about 167,772 votes. That might sound small compared to 70 million, but for a socialist ticket, it was historic. It was the highest vote count for an explicitly socialist candidate since Norman Thomas back in 1936.
She nearly doubled what the PSL got in 2020. This tells us something pretty interesting about the current mood in the country. A lot of people—especially younger voters—are feeling kinda "over" the two-party system. They're looking for something that feels more radical or at least different.
Actionable steps for the future
If you’re someone who wants to see more choices on your ballot, just complaining about it doesn't do much. The system is designed to be a "duopoly." Here is what you can actually do to change how third-party access works:
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Check your state's petition laws. Look up the "ballot access" requirements for your specific state. You'll be shocked at how high the bar is in places like North Carolina compared to Vermont.
Support ranked-choice voting (RCV). This is the big one. In states with RCV, you can vote for a candidate like De la Cruz as your first choice without "wasting" your vote. If she doesn't win, your vote automatically moves to your second choice. It removes the "spoiler" fear entirely.
Volunteer for signature gathering. If you want a candidate on the ballot in 2028, the work starts years in advance. Third parties usually need thousands of verified signatures just to get a foot in the door.
Track the legal challenges. Follow organizations like FairVote or Ballot Access News. They track the court cases where the big parties try to sue the smaller ones off the ballot. Knowing who is trying to limit your choices is half the battle.
The reality is that while Claudia De la Cruz was on the ballot for many, the "freedom of choice" we talk about in elections is often limited by a lot of behind-the-scenes legal maneuvering. Whether you agree with her socialist platform or not, the struggle to simply get a name printed on a piece of paper is a massive part of American political history that most people never see.