RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina's elections board decided Wednesday to further scrutinize attempts by political groups to collect signatures and become a state party. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Cornel West on ballots in this fall's presidential election in battleground states.
North Carolina's We the People and Justice for All parties launched petition drives to receive official party designation, requiring fewer valid signatures from registered and eligible voters than Kennedy, an author and environmental lawyer, and West, a professor and progressive activist, would need to run as independents statewide.
State election officials confirmed to the committee on Wednesday that the groups had submitted more valid signatures than the 13,865 required. Based on that figure, two Republican committee members seconded a motion to formally recognize the We the People Party and Justice for All parties, allowing them to field candidates.
But the board's three Democrats voted against the motion. They agreed that more research was needed into the organization's operations, including how signatures were collected, how party volunteers explained the petition's purpose to voters and what information was placed on the petition list.
Regarding the “We the People” effort, Democratic Party director Siobhan O'Duffy Millen said she was concerned volunteers had misrepresented Kennedy as an independent candidate rather than the party's nominee, which requires a minimum of 83,188 signatures to qualify.
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“The postponement is not a negation of our position as a political party,” board president Alan Hirsch told We the People leaders who took part in the 3 1/2-hour online meeting. “It's simply to allow us to do our job and ensure that those who signed the petition understand the purpose and intent of the proposed political party,” he added.
The board tentatively set a July 9 meeting to reconsider the group's request.
The addition of a presidential candidate adds another layer of stakes and uncertainty to who will win North Carolina's 16 electoral votes. Republican Donald Trump won the state in both 2016 and 2020, but by less than 1.4 percentage points to Democrat Joe Biden in 2020.
Kennedy's campaign said he is officially on the ballot in eight states, excluding North Carolina, and has submitted signatures in 10 more. West's campaign said he has secured access to the ballot in seven other states.
Republican board members criticized the Democratic-majority decision, saying it was not the board's role to question the motives of organization officials.
“I think they did everything they needed to do to comply with the law,” said board member Kevin Lewis. Another Republican, Foeh Eggers, said Democrats were caving in to political groups that challenged the certification request.
Clear Choice Action, an umbrella group of super PACs aligned with allies of President Joe Biden, urged the committee to reject the “We the People” and “Justice for All” petitions, saying they contained many invalid signatures and misleading information.Representatives of the petition groups defended their work.
The state Democratic Party also argued that the groups were trying to circumvent state law by posing as political parties and avoid a more rigorous qualifications process for independent candidates.
The Republican National Committee criticized the committee's decision on Wednesday, and a Trump campaign spokesman also accused North Carolina Democrats of “rigging the system to help Biden.”
Another third party, the Constitutional Party, which sought official status on Wednesday, was also denied formal recognition for now but will be reconsidered next month, Hirsch said, citing questions about the address of the party's representative.
The Constitution Party became an official political party in 2020, but failed to perform well enough in elections to maintain its political standing. This year, the Constitution Party nominated anti-abortion activist Randall Terry as its presidential candidate.
State law requires that political parties submit slates of candidates for all elections except for presidential and vice presidential to the state committee by July 1.
A committee spokesman said recently that parties have been instructed to submit slates of potential presidential candidates by mid-August for ballot preparation. Hirsch said he believes other candidates could be added to the ballot after July 1, given a federal judge's ruling two years ago on the Green Party's certification.