RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — The North Carolina Board of Elections voted Tuesday to approve political parties that want to run in state elections. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. It is expected to be submitted to the state’s presidential election this fall. The commission has rejected similar petitions. Cornel WestHe questioned how the signatures were collected.
After several weeks of deliberation After a petition, the commission voted 4-1 to recognize the “We the People” party, which supporters of Kennedy, an author and environmental lawyer, have used as a vehicle for her to run in several states. The elections commission’s decision means the party can place Kennedy on statewide ballots.
But the committee’s Democratic majority voted 3-2 along party lines to block a vote by North Carolina’s Justice for All Party, which has endorsed West, a professor and progressive activist.
Committee staff said We the People and Justice for All each gathered enough valid signatures from registered and eligible voters — the 13,865 needed — to qualify for Kennedy’s initial attempt to run as an independent in North Carolina.
Democrat Chairman Alan Hirsch said he believed the thousands of signatures submitted by Justice for All were credible but had serious doubts about the motives of the signature gatherers, who are unaffiliated with the group, who submitted the petition.
In a video provided to the committee, pro-Donald Trump activists were seen collecting signatures for West outside a Trump rally in North Carolina, saying putting West on the ballot would take away votes from President-elect Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee.
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Hirsch also pointed to a group called the People Over Party that is collecting signatures in support of West’s candidacy. He said the group’s lawyers have refused to provide the information sought in the committee’s subpoena. People Over Party’s lawyers argued that the subpoena requests are too broad and therefore subject to attorney-client privilege.
“I can’t believe this was done legally,” Hirsch said of the petition drive.
Committee officials also said that of the roughly 50 people they randomly contacted from the Justice For All petition list, many did not sign the petition or did not know what it was for.
Two Republican members of the elections board said the groups should have been recognized as official political parties.
“Justice for All submitted far more petitions than were requested, and after speaking with 49 people, I think it would be unfair to everyone if they are not recognized as a new political party in North Carolina,” said Republican Rep. Kevin Lewis.
Republicans and their allies argue the committee’s Democratic majority is trying to disenfranchise candidates who would steal votes from Biden in battleground states won by Trump in 2016 and 2020.
Italo Medelius, chairman of North Carolina’s Justice for All party, said the party will soon ask a federal court to order its candidates to appear on the ballot. The Kennedy campaign did not immediately respond to an email Tuesday seeking comment on the We the People endorsement.
Kennedy’s campaign said he is officially on the ballot in nine states, except North Carolina, and signatures have been submitted in 14 more. West’s campaign said it has secured ballots in 10 other states but acknowledged some certification procedures still need to be completed.
In some states, the movement to put West and Kennedy on the ballot Secretive groups and Republican donors.
