Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will be allowed to run for president in North Carolina, the State Board of Elections decided Tuesday in a move that could have significant implications for this year’s presidential election.
The vote to approve Kennedy's We The People Party for the November ballot was 4-1.
But Cornel West's bid to get his newly created Justice For All party on the ballot was denied by the Democratic-controlled board in a 3-2 vote along party lines.
The lone dissenter in the Kennedy's case was Siobhan Millen, a Democratic appointee, who said she believes We The People is a fake party that was created only to help Kennedy get around North Carolina's rules for ballot access — which are easier for candidates associated with a party than for independent candidates.
Under North Carolina law, a new party needs fewer than 14,000 validsignatures from North Carolina voters to get ballot access, while an individual running as independent must secure more than 83,000 signatures.
Millen noted that Kennedy is running under half a dozen different party labels in other states, and often refers to himself as an independent, which to her shows he's not truly a member of the party he's claiming in his effort to be put on the ballot in North Carolina.
"What is at play here is that North Carolina voters' desire for political options is being cynically exploited, to circumvent North Carolina law," Millen said.
Board chairman Alan Hirsch, another Democrat, said he thinks Millen is right that Kennedy exploited the process in North Carolina. But despite that, he said, he didn't think the board had the legal authority to deny him ballot access.
Hirsh then welcomed other people or groups to consider suing to stop Kennedy from being allowed on the ballot, if they had further proof that his party isn't legitimate.
"I am going to reluctantly vote to recognize We The People, even though I believe there has been subterfuge," Hirsch said, adding that: "If someone wants to challenge that in court, they are welcome to do so. I think they have a good case."
Potential impact on 2024
This year's presidential election is expected to feature a rematch of the 2020 race between Democrat Joe Biden and Republican Donald Trump.
In 2020. North Carolina was the only swing state to vote for Trump, and it was also among the most closely divided states in the country. Trump won North Carolina by only about 1.5% of the vote in 2020, and Democrats believe that flipping North Carolina would go a long way toward guaranteeing a Biden reelection — even if Trump flips other swing states this year.
A poll of key swing states released Monday by The Telegraph found that Trump had a narrow lead over Biden in North Carolina, 44% to 42%. Kennedy was polling at 4%, the poll found, with another 7% undecided.
West could potentially still make the ballot in North Carolina if he sues Board of Elections and convinces state courts to let him run. A progressive academic who's running to the left of Biden, he'd be expected to draw votes entirely from Biden's base of support if allowed on the ballot in North Carolina.
Kennedy's potential impact is more complicated.
He's a member of the Kennedy dynasty, a force in national Democratic politics, yet many of his views align more closely with the Republican Party. He'd likely be expected to take voters from both Trump and Biden.
The North Carolina Republican Party criticized the elections board for denying West, while a newly formed political group called Clear Choice Action criticized the board for approving Kennedy.
“The actions today from the Democrat-majority NC State Board of Elections confirms our belief they were explicitly acting out of political expediency for Democrats and Joe Biden," N.C. Republican Party Chairman Jason Simmons wrote in a statement.
“The board is wrong to certify We The People," Pete Kavanaugh, a former Biden campaign staffer who founded Clear Choice Action, said in a statement. "Both of these candidates are attempting to play by a different set of rules than everyone else, and exempt themselves from the signature threshold required for an independent presidential candidate. These are two sham parties driven by Republican operatives that result from neither candidate being able to show the level of support required by North Carolina law to get on the ballot as an independent candidate.”
Cornel West denial
The Democratic majority noted that while Justice for All did turn in more than enough petition signatures to be approved, elections officials have received a number of complaints from people who signed those petitions — indicating there could be legal problems with the signatures.
The elections board issued subpoenas to people involved in gathering those signatures, but they refused to comply with those subpoenas, said Hirsch, the elections board chairman. So he and the board's other Democratic members voted not to allow West on the ballot.
"I have no confidence that this was done legitimately," Hirsch said of the Justice For All signature-gathering efforts.
Republican member Stacey Eggers IV said the board was "making a tragic error" in denying West. But although outside GOP groups and party leaders have harshly criticized the board's Democrats and accused them of acting purely out of political motivations, Eggers also took a moment to defend his Democratic colleagues as having engaged in thoughtful deliberation, even if he disagreed with the outcome.
One of the Democratic members, Jeff Carmon, said he felt no choice but to vote to deny West's party given the lingering legal questions and, especially, the refusal to answer those questions.
"It's unfortunate that people in the party didn't give us more information," Carmon said.
The board twice delayed a decision on Kennedy and West before Tuesday's final ruling.
Republican lawmakers, who have sought to overhaul the elections board in recent years, said the entire process pointed to the need for their proposed changes.
In March, a panel of three North Carolina judges blocked legislative changes to even the board's partisan make-up and give itself appointment power to the state board, stripping it from the governor. Gov. Roy Cooper ffiled thelawsuit after the legislature overrode his veto in October.
"The dragged-out, blatantly partisan process to deny a party ballot access is exactly why we need a truly bipartisan board that isn't beholden to a single political party," said North Carolina Senate leader Phil Berger, R-Rockingham. "The Democrat-controlled board is more interested in partisan advantages than election integrity."
House Speaker Tim Moore, R-Cleveland, accused the Democrats on the board of an attempt to "bend the rules to insulate their own party's nominee."
