North Carolina’s state Board of Elections voted against giving ballot access to new parties supporting presidential candidates Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Cornel West on Wednesday night, though the decision is not final and will be revisited before the November election in the key battleground state.
The decision split the board along party lines, with the three-member Democratic majority voting to keep West and Kennedy off the ballot “for now,” and the two Republican commissioners said they were “disappointed” by the process.
Chairman Alan Hirsch said more investigation is needed to “look at petition-gathers who have been problematic” and to examine other concerns before making a final decision.
In a virtual meeting, commissioners discussed an NBC News report that showed out-of-state operatives with a GOP firm were secretly collecting signatures for West, a left-wing academic, in an apparent attempt to “take away votes from Joe Biden,” as one petition-gatherer told attendees outside a planned rally for former President Donald Trump.
They also worried Kennedy allies are inappropriately exploiting election laws by creating a new party, which would then make Kennedy its nominee in order to place his name on the ballot, instead of trying to get the independent candidate on the ballot himself. The bar is lower for new parties compared to independent candidates, who are required to collect more signatures.
“If this board keeps rubber-stamping thinly veiled so-called parties, national operatives are going to continue to come in and keep manipulating our system,” said commissioner Siobhan Millen, a Democratic appointee. “Allowing unaffiliated candidates to follow the more lenient new-party rules is allowing a blind eye to partisan mischief, potentially.”
