Georgia officials say Kennedy, 2 others have signatures for presidential ballot as disputes remain

ATLANTA (AP) — Three independent and third-party candidates got one step closer to appearing on Georgia's presidential ballot on Tuesday. But legal challenges still loom.

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger announced that officials have verified that independents Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Cornel West and Claudia De la Cruz of the Party for Socialism and Liberation each collected more than the 7,500 signatures needed to qualify.

Raffensperger said 11,336 signatures were accepted for Kennedy after county election officials reviewed petitions, while 8,075 were accepted for Cornel West and 7,682 were accepted for De la Cruz.

While Democrats, Republicans and Libertarians have secure places on the Georgia ballot, other parties and independent candidates can qualify by petition.

But Georgia Democrats are still legally challenging efforts to place the three candidates and Green Party nominee Jill Stein on Georgia's ballots. It is part of a nationwide effort to block candidates who could siphon votes from Vice President Kamala Harris.

Hearings on the Georgia challenges are scheduled to begin Monday. After an administrative law judge makes a recommendation, Raffensperger will issue a final ruling. A decision must be made in time for Georgia to mail military and overseas ballots beginning Sept. 17.

While some other states routinely put minor-party and independent candidates on ballots, Georgia voters haven’t had more than four options since 1948. The last time there were any candidates besides a Republican, Democrat and Libertarian was in 2000, when independent Pat Buchanan qualified.

Kennedy was kicked off New York's ballot earlier this week when a judge ruled that the address in New York City’s suburbs that Kennedy listed as a residence on nominating petitions was a “sham” address he used to maintain his voter registration and to further his political aspirations. The judge ruled in favor of challengers who argued Kennedy’s actual residence was the home in Los Angeles he shares with his wife, the “Curb Your Enthusiasm” actor Cheryl Hines. Kennedy has vowed to appeal

It is unclear if Kennedy's home address will be an issue in the Georgia hearings. Democrats have alleged that all the petitions followed improper procedures, making them invalid. The Kennedy campaign's Paul Rossi said in a July 31 online news conference that there was nothing wrong with the campaign's petitions, with Rossi describing the allegations as “throwing spaghetti at the wall.”

“Because they can’t challenge the signatures, they’ve made allegations which are simply not correct at all,” Rossi said.

Until this year, the only road to getting on the ballot in Georgia was by collecting signatures from 7,500 registered voters statewide. But Georgia's Republican-majority legislature passed a law directing the secretary of state to also place on the ballot candidates of any party that makes ballots in at least 20 other states. That move was widely interpreted as trying to make trouble for Biden, although former President Donald Trump's Republican campaign has also regarded the Kennedy campaign with suspicion.

The Green Party, which has nominated Stein, says it aims to make Georgia ballots using the 20-state rule.

FILE - Former Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein waits to speak at a board of elections meeting at City Hall in Philadelphia, Oct. 2, 2019. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)

FILE - Scholar and activist Cornel West, who is running for U.S. president as a third-party candidate in 2024, speaks on Saturday, July 15, 2023, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File)

FILE - Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., center right, leaves the Albany County Courthouse, Aug. 6, 2024, in Albany, N.Y. (AP Photo/Hans Pennink, File)

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The murder trial of a tech consultant in the stabbing death of Cash App founder Bob Lee begins Monday, a year and a half after the widely admired entrepreneur was found staggering on a deserted downtown San Francisco street seeking help.

Lee’s death at age 43 stunned the tech community, and fellow executives and engineers penned tributes to his generosity and brilliance. Lee was chief product officer of cryptocurrency platform MobileCoin when he died. He was a father to two children.

Prosecutors say Nima Momeni, 40, planned the April 4 attack after a dispute over his younger sister, Khazar, with whom Lee was friends. They say Momeni took a knife from his sister’s condo, drove Lee to a secluded area and stabbed him three times, then fled.

Defense lawyers disagree, and they say that Lee, high on drugs, attacked Momeni.

“Our theory is that Bob had the knife, and that Nima acted in self defense,” attorney Saam Zangeneh said.

He said his client is eager to tell his side of the story, but they haven't decided whether Momeni will testify in his defense.

Momeni, who lives in nearby Emeryville, California, has been in custody since his arrest days after Lee died at a San Francisco hospital. Momeni's mother has been a steadfast presence at court hearings, and he is close to his sister.

Prosecutors have said in court documents that a friend of Lee's told homicide investigators they had been drinking with Momeni’s sister the day before the stabbing. The friend said Momeni later questioned Lee about whether his sister was doing drugs or otherwise engaging in inappropriate behavior, and Lee said she had not.

Surveillance video of Lee’s final night shows him entering the posh Millennium Tower downtown, where Momeni’s sister lives with her husband, a prominent San Francisco plastic surgeon.

Video then shows Lee and Momeni leaving the building together after 2 a.m. and driving off in Momeni’s car. Lee was found around 2:30 a.m. in the Rincon Hill neighborhood of San Francisco, which has tech offices and condominiums but little activity in the early morning hours.

Police recovered a knife with a 4-inch (10-centimeter) blade at the scene. Prosecutors said tests showed Momeni’s DNA on the weapon’s handle and Lee’s DNA on the bloody blade. But the defense said police should have tested the handle for fingerprints, namely Lee's.

Momeni, who has pleaded not guilty, faces 26 years to life if convicted.

San Francisco Superior Court Judge Alexandra Gordon has told jurors the trial could last until mid-December.

FILE - Flowers sit at a tree in front of the building where a technology executive was fatally stabbed outside of in San Francisco, April 6, 2023. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)

FILE - Nima Momeni, the man charged in the fatal stabbing of Cash App founder Bob Lee, makes his way into the courtroom for his arraignment in San Francisco, May 2, 2023. (Gabrielle Lurie/San Francisco Chronicle via AP, Pool, File)