We The People Party, despite an 11th-hour attempt by the North Carolina Democratic Party, will remain on the ballot for more than 7.5 million registered voters.
Wake County Superior Court Judge Keith Gregory said no to an emergency injunction that would have kept Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a former Democrat, from being a choice for voters of the state. The State Board of Elections ruled 4-1 in the party’s favor on July 16 after delaying decision on July 9 and voting on June 26 against 3-2.
While Kennedy’s access to the ballot draws headlines, party recognition means voters have choices for affiliation. We The People is one of eight in the state. Also, the party can place other candidates on the ballot in other races, not just president.
Democrats have a 3-2 majority on the board. Siobhan Millan was against the party in all votes; fellow Democrats Alan Hirsch, the chairman, and Jeff Carmon also were initially against. Republicans Kevin Lewis and Stacy Eggers voted for the party at each juncture.
Gregory, the judge, is a registered Democrat. Absentee-by-mail ballots are 25 days away from going out, early in-person voting is 66 days away, and Nov. 5 Election Day is 85 days away.
The threshold for gaining access for a party is 13,865 signatures by petition. Not only did We The People exceed that, so too did the Constitution Party and the Justice For All Party. The latter was denied, the former overcame initial votes against.
In a year with Democrats saying “democracy is on the ballot” and people regardless of party questioning integrity of the process, the state board has been named in a pair of lawsuits, and been investigated on the state and federal levels. All in the first 26 days of July.
State lawmakers, a Republican majority in both chambers of the General Assembly, have been unsuccessful converting the state election board and respective boards for all 100 counties into a choice for equal representation by Democrats and Republicans. Their effort has been criticized as a road to gridlock while, in the aftermath instead, a summer of litigation and investigation of actions has played out.
We The People, the Kennedy24 website says, symbolizes “that our government draws it power from the people that it was made to serve.” California native Nicole Shanahan, a patent attorney and entrepreneur, is Kennedy’s running mate.
Politicos say the party, and the Justice For All Party, could possibly draw votes that might otherwise go to Democrats. Similarly, the Constitution Party is conservative in values and could siphon votes from Republicans.
Kennedy-Shanahan are on the ballot in 17 states: Alaska, California, Colorado, Delaware, Hawaii, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, Utah and Vermont.
Democrats face an uphill pattern in the fight for the office Kennedy seeks. Since Lyndon B. Johnson won North Carolina in 1964, the only Democrats to carry the state in 14 elections since are Jimmy Carter in 1976 and Barack Obama in 2008 – and neither did so four years later.
Downballot is different. Democrats have been the overwhelming party to win state level races for governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general.
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).
