(The Center Square) The actions of North Carolina's State Election Board are being investigated by the U.S. House Judiciary Committee, led by Republican Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio.
This comes after the committee rejected three parties from voting, even though each party exceeded the required number of signatures to qualify.
In a letter from the Judiciary and House Administration committees, which are also investigating the decision, lawmakers said they were seeking more “documentation and information” about the decision.
“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,” Rep. Jordan and Rep. Brian Steele, R-Wisconsin, wrote.
Steele is chairman of the House Administration Committee.
The three parties are endorsing Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Cornel West and Randall Terry for the 2024 presidential election.
According to state elections board records, each party submitted more than the 13,865 votes needed to appear on the ballot.
They were denied access to their ballots for the first time last week, but even before the federal investigation was launched, the commission said it would revisit the issue in July.
The letter from the Fed said the decision was made based on “political motivations” by committee members, noting that all three Democrats on the committee voted against the petition request.
“For example,” the letter states, “in rejecting one petition, Democrats voted to block the petition solely because the party leader's address on the petition was not up to date.”
The board's two Republican members voted in favor of approving the petition.
The FTC is not the first commission to react negatively to a committee decision that has faced widespread backlash.
The North Carolina Libertarian Party issued a statement supporting the petition of three other minor parties, calling the decision “election interference.”
“The Libertarian Party of North Carolina (@LPNC) is deeply disappointed, but not surprised, by the decision made yesterday by the North Carolina State Board of Elections (@NCSBE) to limit the choices of North Carolinians by barring the People's Party, Constitution Party and Justice Party from the North Carolina ballot.” Post to X“We categorically reject this partisan, anti-American decision that makes a mockery of the concept of democracy and destroys any semblance of representative government.”
If the decision is not overturned soon, candidates will miss the deadline to get on the November ballot.
As a result, the federal committee has asked the commission to respond to their request by Monday in order to allow the commission to conduct its “oversight” and avoid any undue “influence” or “influence” the commission may be seeking to exert over North Carolina's elections.