The North Carolina State Board of Elections on Tuesday allowed one third-party candidate to run in November's presidential election, but not another. Pending a lawsuit, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will appear on the nomination forms, but Cornell West will not.
Gage Skidmore
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The committee had previously held up the certification of both parties, Kennedy's “We the People” and West's “Justice for All,” to verify signatures on both parties' ballots. Officials are investigating whether voters fully understood what they were signing and whether the signatures were collected transparently and legally.
Board member Siobhan O'Duffy Millen raised a different issue Tuesday, saying both candidates were essentially running under party labels and should instead be required to run as independents, which under state law requires gathering nearly six times as many signatures.
“If their goal is just to 'put Bobby on the ballot,' or to put Dr. West on the ballot, then that's really an independent candidate,” she said. Millen noted that Kennedy has run for president in other states for other parties, including the Libertarian Party, and questioned whether “We the People” and “Justice for All” actually meet the definition of a political party.
Millen voted against We the People's recognition, but the other four members of the committee said Kennedy's party met the criteria. Chairman Alan Hirsch said he believed there was “artifice” behind We the People's application, but by a narrow margin that if the committee had rejected the application, the court would have ultimately ordered We the People recognized as a political party.
But the committee voted 3-2 to block West's endorsement, citing continued serious questions about the veracity of his signature on the endorsement petition. Officials said they tried to contact 250 voters who signed the endorsement petition but were only able to reach 49 of them. Nearly half of them said they didn't remember signing the petition, didn't know what they signed, or weren't aware they were signing a new party application.
The vote was split along party lines, with two Republicans saying West should be on the ballot and one Democrat voting no.
Board member Kevin Lewis, a Republican, was outraged and said West's party should be allowed.
“Justice for All has submitted far more petitions than were requested, and after speaking with 49 people, I think it would be unfair to everyone if we were not recognized as a new political party in North Carolina,” he said.
