NORTH CAROLINA — The North Carolina Democratic Party filed a lawsuit against the state board of elections last Thursday and it has the General Assembly watching for what comes to light.
READ MORE: State elections board sued over third-party ballot access, amid House committee interrogation
The lawsuit requests an injunction to force Robert F. Kennedy Jr. off the ballot by Aug. 16.
The Democratic Party filed its lawsuit two days after the North Carolina House of Representatives oversight committee questioned elections board chair Alan Hirsch and the executive director of the North Carolina State Board of Elections, Karen Brinson Bell. The committee wanted to give the two a chance to explain why they approved the We the People Party (representing Kennedy) for ballot access this election season but rejected the Justice for all Party (representing Cornel West).
Rep. Jake Johnson (R-Polk), chair of the oversight committee, told Port City Daily findings of the lawsuit may determine whether or not the committee will need to question the board again.
The state board has been under fire in recent weeks, as a separate lawsuit was filed by three Fayetteville Justice for All supporters on July 22 against the board for denying the Justice for All party.
Also, nonprofit ads claim the Democratic-majority board purposely rejected candidates who could threaten their candidate’s win.
Then on July 23, North Carolinian and U.S. congressional candidate Bo Hines also filed a complaint against the board with the North Carolina State Bar for its previous rejections of the third parties.
Johnson added if the House committee determines the board made decisions on a partisan basis, the General Assembly will need to have a “serious conversation” about options to take in the coming weeks.
Port City Daily asked Johnson to clarify what specifically those options may entail but did not receive a response by press.
The NCDP — who also sued the board in 2022 to prevent the Green Party from gaining midterm election ballot access — is now challenging the We The People party’s ballot access. Former Democratic presidential candidate and nephew of president John F. Kennedy, RFK is running the first campaign of the party, formed in January.
The state board of elections voted 4-1 to approve the We the People’s petition on July 16, but it was denied twice before in meetings on July 9 and June 26, along with the Justice for All Party which never gained approval.
The reasons for the rejections was because it needed more information about the legitimacy of the petitions’ signatures, which prompted an investigation by staff into signers of the petitions.
The NCDP’s lawsuit says the board’s action allows an unaffiliated candidate to “masquerade” as a political party with the sole purpose of gaining ballot access. Essentially, it claims Kennedy originally registered as an independent, which would require more signatures to get on the ballot, before changing his mind and forming a party, requiring fewer signatures to gain access.
The NCDP argues this method of getting verified evades state requirements of unaffiliated candidates and is illegal. Unaffiliated candidates had to receive over 80,000 signatures by March 5 to qualify for the ballot whereas parties only had to get roughly 13,000 by June 1.
The lawsuit also says that the board’s “unlawful inclusion” of We the People on the ballot will open the door for other independent candidates to use this party to get approval, which will require further funds and resources from the NCDP to prevent.
The lawsuit added Kennedy gaining ballot access as a member of a party as opposed to being an independent allows for more campaign donations. Contribution and expenditure limits for individual candidates put forth by the General Assembly do not apply to political parties.
Hirsch said in the July 16 meeting — when the board passed the We the People party but denied Justice for All ballot access — the political party was a “subterfuge.” Yet, Hirsch passed it anyway and said a court would ultimately have to decide whether North Carolina allows the party on the ballot.
Though he was not sure whether the board should “be the one standing in the way if someone wants to challenge that in court,” he expressed that a challenger would “have a good case.”
The North Carolina Democratic Party stated within the lawsuit that it was filed so that a court could answer Hirsch’s question. Port City Daily reached out to the party but did not receive a response by press.
The lawsuit also cited a statement given by Siobhan Millen in the state board’s July 16 meeting, The board member explained her reasoning for voting against We the People and why the party is illegitimate.
In the statement, Millen listed six claims that she said indicated the only purpose of Kennedy’s party was to put him on the ballot. The lawsuit listed four of her points that were most pertinent to the case:
- Both West and Kennedy originally indicated they planned to run as independent candidates.
- Scripts used by Kennedy’s petition gatherers “indicated that the sole purpose of the party was to secure a place on the ballot for Kennedy as an ‘independent candidate.’”
- We the People only started endorsing other candidates such as mayors and North Carolina House candidates after the board started questioning the authenticity of the party
- Kennedy is getting on ballots “by any means necessary with no regard to the particulars of a political party.”
Kennedy is running under a number of different parties across the U.S., including the Libertarian, Natural Law, and Reform parties as well as parties specific to individual states, such as the American Independent Party of California.
In some states, including Texas, Delaware and Nevada, Kennedy is running as an independent. Both national and state Democrats in Nevada jointly sued Kennedy and the Nevada secretary of state for allowing We the People on the ballot because Nevada law does not allow independent candidates to be registered with political parties.
Kennedy countersued? the Nevada secretary of state for not allowing him ballot access. His campaign claimed he was given incorrect information by a member of the secretary’s staff that prevented him from qualifying on the ballot. As an independent candidate, he was required to list a running mate on his petition, but he said he was told that he did not need a running mate.
Kennedy was officially approved by election officials in Nevada on July 26.
Port City Daily reached out to Kennedy’s campaign for its response to the North Carolina lawsuit and whether they would take action if removed from the ballot, but did not receive a response by press.
The Kennedy campaign will hold a press conference on Wednesday to provide updates on ballot access and “DNC challenges.”
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