California Secretary of State doesn’t explain why the Green Party’s Jill Stein left off the ballot

From the Ballot Access News article, “California Secretary of State Won’t Reveal Internal Documents Relating to Why Jill Stein was Omitted from the Peace & Freedom Presidential Primary Ballot”:

As noted earlier, the Peace & Freedom Party of California asked the California Secretary of State to list Jill Stein on its presidential primary ballot, but the Secretary of State refused. A request was made for any writing that might have explained the Secretary of State’s decision. But that office has replied that such writings will not be made public, because they are “notes, drafts or memoranda that are not retained in the ordinary course of business and are exempt under the deliberative process privilege.”

Before 2012, the California Secretary of State had always printed the names of presidential candidates on the Peace & Freedom Party ballot, if the party had suggested those names. That precedent was broken in 2012, when the former Secretary of State refused to list Peta Lindsay on the grounds that she was under age 35.