(The Center Square) The North Carolina State Board of Elections decided Tuesday to further postpone a vote to approve voting rights for the People’s Party and Justice for All parties, sparking a fierce debate.
The Constitution Party was the third political party to meet the signature threshold set by state law and is the party’s presidential candidate. Randall Terry is the party’s signature conservative values, and the two parties are threatening to slow progress in the opposite direction and draw votes away from Democrats.
The committee met on June 26 to postpone access for all three parties, who are facing a federal investigation by the U.S. House Judiciary Committee, led by Republican Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio.
“I just don’t understand what’s going on here,” Republican Councilman Kevin Lewis said at Tuesday’s meeting. “I don’t get it. I think the board is bringing a lot of bad publicity to the board. It’s starting to call into question your motives.”
At the previous board meeting, each party’s proposal was rejected by a 3-2 vote due to party discipline.
Democratic Chairman Alan Hirsch, Jeff Carmon and Siobhan Milan voted against the motion, while Republicans Stacey Eggers and Kevin Lewis voted in favor.
This time, the board moved to endorse the Constitution Party but did not vote to endorse the other two parties, instead postponing the vote for an unspecified period of time.
The Constitutional Party has until July 23 to submit recommendations for all of its candidates. The deadline was approved unanimously.
The federal investigation was launched a week ago, two years after a state board was sued and found to have wrongfully denied the Green Party voting rights in the 2022 election.
“The House Administration and Judiciary Committees are concerned that the NCSBE’s decision was politically motivated and may have been made to influence the 2024 presidential election by restricting the candidates for which voters can vote,” wrote Rep. Jordan and Rep. Bryan Steele (R-Wis.), Chairman of the House Administration Committee.
While Terry is unlikely to win, presidential candidates Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (We the People Party) and Cornel West (Justice for All Party) are still waiting to be elected.
As The Center Square previously reported, adding additional candidates is not beneficial for Democrats. While they are eligible to vote in any election, the presidential election is the one that has attracted the most attention in this growing scandal.
Since Lyndon B. Johnson’s victory in 1964, Democratic presidential candidates have won the state just twice in the past 14 elections: Jimmy Carter in 1976 and Barack Obama in 2008. Both candidates failed to win the state four years later.
North Carolina has 16 electoral votes and is considered one of seven key battleground states totaling 93 votes. The others are Pennsylvania (19), Georgia (16), Michigan (15), Arizona (11), Wisconsin (10) and Nevada (6).
All directors confirmed that they had no conflicts of interest in relation to the matters under consideration. Mr Lewis disputed this and expressed concerns about the motives of other directors.
“I’m just a little disappointed that this committee has been slow to act on this issue,” Lewis said. “You know how I voted last time, and I hope the other committee members will make the right decision and approve these parties.”
Hirsch said he would schedule another meeting “promptly” after asking to discuss Lewis’ concerns “offline.” Hirsch said he wanted his staff to complete their review of the petition submitted by Justice for People and Justice for All.
The Democrats’ reasoning is ironic: Photo ID and U.S. citizenship laws are regularly challenged by his party, including in court cases against the former despite overwhelming support from North Carolina voters.
Eggers responded by saying the number of signatures from both parties far exceeded the required threshold, and the committee should not conduct a “search” looking for invalid signatures.
The Justice for All party also called the committee’s subpoenas “illegal.”
“This is political persecution orchestrated by Marc Elias and the North Carolina Democratic Party and should be fully condemned by anyone, regardless of party affiliation,” the party said in a statement.
There is widespread anger among Republicans over the committee’s actions.
“Despite having to pay legal fees for unfairly blocking Green Party access to the ballot in the 2022 election, it appears Democrats are using their control of the State Board of Elections to execute the same strategy against the party that supports Cornel West and RFK Jr.,” North Carolina Rep. Dan Bishop said on social media.
The North Carolina Republican Party also issued a statement in support of both parties.
“This committee has once again descended into blatant partisanship, this time clearly aimed at protecting the political prospects of Democrats, and specifically President Joe Biden, in this state’s general election,” North Carolina Republican Party Chairman Jason Simmons said in a letter to the committee.
Councillor Millen added that he was aware that there had been significant publicity surrounding their decision since the investigation began.
“We take every letter we receive seriously,” she said.
The date of the next meeting has not yet been decided.
