I noted in Blaming the Libertarian Party that I did not believe The Wall Street Journal’s claim that Libertarian Party candidate Jo Jorgensen somehow cost President Trump the 2020 election. But The Philadelphia Inquirer is making the case that the exclusion of Green Party candidate Howie Hawkins from the Pennsylvania ballot may have carried the Keystone State for Joe Biden:

Pennsylvania Democrats may have saved Biden by knocking the Green Party candidate off the ballot

Howie Hawkins, from Howie Hawkins for President campaign.

In a particularly litigious presidential campaign, one legal fight may have saved President-elect Joe Biden’s chances of winning Pennsylvania — and the presidency.

The state Supreme Court, in a split verdict Sept. 17, removed Green Party presidential candidate Howie Hawkins from the ballot for improper paperwork. The legal challenge was filed on behalf of two Democrats by Pittsburgh attorney Clifford Levine, who was representing the Pennsylvania Democratic Party in other cases.

“The concern was that, if you looked at the results in 2016, the Green Party candidate got more votes than the margin between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton,” Levine said Monday. “There was obviously a concern that a third-party candidate may effectively dilute the focus that we thought was important, that it be a race between Donald Trump and Joe Biden.”

Jill Stein, the Green Party’s 2016 nominee, won 49,941 votes in Pennsylvania in 2016, as Clinton fell to Trump by 44,292 votes, a margin of just 0.7%.

Biden held a lead of about 54,000 votes over Trump in the state, as of Thursday. Pennsylvania secured an Electoral College win for Biden on Saturday as media outlets across the country called the state in his favor.

The Green Party’s nominees for attorney general, auditor general, and treasurer all won far more votes than Biden’s lead.

Note that Miss Jorgensen was not kept off the Pennsylvania ballot, and thus the common wisdom would have had her syphoning votes from President Trump, but Mr Hawkins could not have taken away many votes from Mr Biden, other than write-in votes.

It’s still a bit of a difficult argument to make, given that it was also common knowledge, pushed every day by the Inquirer, that the race was extremely close, and that Pennsylvania and its 20 electoral votes might be decisive. Remembering Hillary Clinton’s narrow loss in Pennsylvania, I have to ask how many people would have voted for the Green Party candidate.