The North Carolina Board of Elections decided to further postpone voting on approving ballot access for Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s We the People Party and Cornel West’s Justice for All Party.
Having met the signature threshold as mandated by the state, the board approved the Constitution Party, with Randall Terry as its presidential nominee.
While the first two parties lean closer to the left and could potentially draw votes away from Democrats, Terry’s party emphasizes conservative values.
Last month, with Democrats opposing the decision and Republicans in favor of it, the board voted 3-2 along party lines to deny access for all three parties.
This time, they approved the Constitution Party but delayed voting on the other two parties indefinitely.
By a unanimous vote, Terry’s party has until July 23 to submit all candidate nominations.
The board is currently under federal investigation by the House Judiciary Committee, led by Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH).
The investigation launched a week ago follows a state board’s previous improper denial of the Green Party access to the 2022 ballot.
“The Committee on House Administration and the Committee on the Judiciary are concerned that the NCSBE’s decision was politically motivated and may have been done to influence the 2024 presidential election by limiting the candidates for which voters may cast their ballots,” Jordan and Rep. Bryan Steil (R-WI), chairman of the House Administration Committee, wrote in a letter to the board.
Since Lyndon B. Johnson’s 1964 triumph, Democratic presidential candidates have only won the state twice in the last 14 cycles: Jimmy Carter in 1976 and Barack Obama in 2008.
All board members maintained they had no conflicts of interest or personal motivations when voting on the party registrations.
Democratic Chairman Alan Hirsch said he wants to allow the staff to complete their investigations into the signatures submitted by the other two parties.
In response, Republican board member Stacy Eggers said they should avoid a “fishing expedition” to find invalid signatures, given that both parties had surpassed the required signature threshold.
The Justice for All Party of North Carolina also called the board’s subpoenas “illegal.”
“This is political persecution orchestrated by Marc Elias and the NC Democrats,” the party wrote on X.
The decision also sparked widespread backlash among Republicans.
“Despite Democrats having to pay legal fees for frivolous interference with the Green Party’s ballot access in 2022, Democrats appear to be using their control of the State Elections Board to run the same playbook against the parties supporting Cornell West and RFK Jr.,” wrote Rep. Dan Bishop (R-NC) on X.
In addition, the North Carolina GOP released a statement in favor of the parties.
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“This board is yet again engaging in blatant partisanship, this time clearly aimed at preserving the political prospects of Democrats, specifically President Joe Biden in this state’s General Election,” said Chairman Jason Simmons in a letter to the board.
No date has been set for the next meeting.
