Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s We the People party was legally registered, a Wake Superior Court judge ruled on Monday, rejecting an attempt by the state Democratic Party to exclude a third-party candidate from the election.
The North Carolina Democratic Party sued the State Election Commission and We the People, arguing that the commission was wrong to grant We the People party status.
To form the alternative party and nominate Kennedy as its candidate, We the People only needed to collect 13,865 signatures from registered voters on their petitions. Had Kennedy followed through with his original plan to run as an independent candidate, he would have needed to submit more than 83,000 signatures on the petition.
The state’s Democrats claimed that “We the People” had circumvented the law to lower the signature threshold.
“There can be no party whose sole purpose is to put an independent candidate on the ballot,” said Ray Bennett, one of the Democrats’ lawyers.
In an April 17 ruling, Superior Court Judge Keith Gregory said he would not issue the injunction requested by the Democrats.
“It would be unconscionable for this court to tell a candidate who chose one of two methods that the method he used was a pretext when in reality, whether he met the requirements or not, he met the requirements,” Gregory said.
Bennett declined to say whether Democrats would appeal, but he said time is running out. The deadline to print ballots is approaching. Counties will begin mailing mail-in ballots to voters who request them on Sept. 6.
The state election board voted 4-1 last month to confirm “We, the people”. One Democrat opposed the move, and board chairman Alan Hirsch said he was reluctant to vote to allow the alternative party to enter the board. Hirsch said at the time that it was a close legal decision that would have to be decided by the courts.
Terence Steed, a lawyer representing the state panel, argued Monday that it is not the panel’s place to decide whether or not an alternative party is created for a valid purpose.
“There is simply no such test in the law,” said Steed, who works as an attorney in the state’s attorney general’s office.
Democrats are arguing against We the People’s First Amendment right to form a political party, said Oliver Hall, a lawyer representing the new party. We the People has complied with all provisions of state law, he said.
The Democrats are challenging Kennedy’s eligibility in several states.
Outside the courtroom, Hall said Democrats’ attempts to deny Kennedy access to the ballot were “fundamentally undemocratic.”
“This is not in keeping with the name of the Democratic Party. They are trying to suppress the freedom of choice of voters. They are doing this by going to court and making extremely novel, if not completely unfounded, claims here and elsewhere.”
The review of alternative party certifications in North Carolina has been riddled with allegations of partisanship for months.
Republicans at the state and federal levels criticized the Democratic majority on the Elections Committee for delaying decisions on third-party approval and for ultimately rejecting a motion from Cornel West’s Justice for All party.
But Gregory seemed put off by We the People vice chairman and attorney Ryan Rabah’s suggestion in a July 1 letter to the state election board that the certification decision had been delayed for partisan political reasons.
“My interpretation of the letter, which was part of everything that was sent to me, was that the party felt they were not being treated fairly because of their party affiliation,” Gregory said.
“When you make statements like that and set the parameters to say, ‘Yes, whether you’re a Democrat or a Republican, you’re going to be like that,’ then unfortunately you’re laying the groundwork for what we have here now,” he said.
“I have no business in this fight,” Gregory said. “My job is to be fair and impartial to both parties or any litigant who appears before me.”
