(The Center Square) – Petitions enabling presidential hopefuls Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Cornel West for two liberal-leaning parties to appear on ballots in November are under consideration for the third time Tuesday in North Carolina.
The State Board of Elections — already under federal investigation and possibly looking at a second on the state level — has set its next meeting to consider the We the People Party and the Justice for All Party. The Democrat-majority panel has denied each so far.
Kennedy is the We the People Party candidate, West represents Justice for All.
The board led by Chairman Alan Hirsch is probing the legitimacy of signatures turned in by the parties. Both parties, and the Constitution Party which gained access at a meeting Tuesday, eclipsed the 13,865 requirement.
On June 26, all three parties were denied in 3-2 decisions – the three Democrats against, the two Republican members in favor. Only the Constitution Party got a vote Tuesday, and it was unanimous. It’ll place Randall Terry on the ballot running for president.
In addition to Hirsch, the other Democrats are Jeff Carmon and Siobhan Millan. GOP representatives are Stacy Eggers and Kevin Lewis. The Republicans on the board have taken issue with the Democrats’ delay in approval, and Eggers referenced the state board’s loss in federal court because it didn’t approve the Green Party two years ago.
State House Speaker Tim Moore, R-Cleveland, issued a statement afterward saying the three Democrats won’t vote to approve because Kennedy and West would “pose a threat to Joe Biden in November,” meaning siphoning of liberal votes. He called it “election interference at its worst.”
The Judiciary Committee of U.S. House of Representatives has opened an investigation, and Moore said he anticipates the state House’s Oversight and Reform Committee taking up the election board’s decision when it meets July 23.
The twist is ironic. Democrats in 2024 across the country are campaigning on democracy being on the ballot and often chide Republicans for suppressing voters, even going so far this past week in the U.S. House to favor anyone to vote regardless of American citizenship. The state Democratic Party in North Carolina denied U.S. Rep. Dean Phillips, D-Minn., a place on the Super Tuesday primary ballot with President Joe Biden. Now, its members to the state board are in a ballot access scandal just two years removed from being guilty of another.
According to opinion poll analysis website 538, a July 1-4 poll by Morning Consult sponsored by Bloomberg had former President Donald Trump ahead of Biden 46%-43% when they are the only two candidates. With more, it is Trump over Biden 42%-40%, followed by Kennedy (7%), West (1%), Jill Stein (1%) and Chase Oliver (1%). Stein is the Green Party candidate, Oliver the Libertarian, and each of those parties has ballot access in the state.
The next-most recent polls for North Carolinians were done in early June.
Sampling by Redfield & Wilton Strategies, sponsored by The Telegraph, on June 8-11 had Trump (43%) ahead of Biden (40%) with Kennedy (7%), Stein (1%) and Oliver (0%) also available as choices. Analysis by Spry Strategies on June 7-11 had Trump (45%) ahead of Biden (37%) and Kennedy (8%).
Going back 60 years since incumbent Democratic President Lyndon B. Johnson won the state, the only presidential candidates in 14 elections to carry North Carolina were Jimmy Carter in 1976 and Barack Obama in 2008. And neither repeated the feat four years later, Carter losing overall to Ronald Reagan and Obama reelected to the White House despite the setback to Sen. Mitt Romney.
North Carolina has 16 electoral college votes and is considered one of seven key battleground states representing 93 electoral college votes. The others are Pennsylvania (19), Georgia (16), Michigan (15), Arizona (11), Wisconsin (10) and Nevada (six).
