RALEIGH – The North Carolina State Elections Board approved the registration of the Justice For All party at its August 20 meeting, following a federal court ruling on August 12 ordering the board to do so.
There was no board discussion on the order to certify the Justice For All Party (JFA). Board member Siobahn Millen made a motion to certify the JFA because “we are compelled to do so by the federal court.” Member Jeff Carmon reluctantly seconded the motion after several moments of silence and the motion passed unanimously.
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For months, the North Carolina State Board of Elections (NCSBE) had refused to approve the JFA, whose presidential candidate is Cornel West.
The NCSBE had initially refused to recognize the We The People Party (WTP), associated with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., as a presidential candidate, but finally approved the party in early August.
The North Carolina Democratic Party then filed suit to recall WTP, but Wake County Superior Court Judge Keith Gregory ruled in WTP’s favor. In his ruling, he stated, “It would be unconscionable for this Court to tell a candidate who chose one of two methods that the method he used was an excuse when in reality, whether he did or did not qualify, he qualified.”
Kennedy has since suspended his campaign and officially endorsed former President Donald Trump at a rally in Arizona on August 23. Kennedy said he would remove his name from the ballot in swing states. To withdraw his candidacy in North Carolina, Kennedy would have to submit a written request to the NCSBE before September 6, the day mail-in ballots are sent out.
In response to questions from the North State Journal about Kennedy’s possible request to be removed from North Carolina’s ballot, Patrick Gannon, communications director for the NCSBE, said the board would have to “consider whether it is practical to remove his name from the ballots and then reprint the ballots.”
The NCSBE has since received a request from Kennedy’s party and the board has called an emergency meeting for August 29 at 11:30 a.m. to discuss the matter.
“In North Carolina, the first mail-in ballots will be mailed out on Friday, September 6, 10 days from now,” Gannon wrote in his August 27 email response. “As of Tuesday morning, more than half of the state’s 100 counties had already printed ballots.”
The meeting began with a discussion about the Mobile UNC One Card as an acceptable form of photo ID for voting in the 2024 general election. Board member Stacy “Four” Eggers, one of two Republicans on the board, expressed concerns that it was a mobile ID and not a card.
“We simply lack the legal basis to replace the identity card with a mobile app,” says Eggers.
Eggers criticized the fact that it is not possible to photocopy the ID and that it can be digitally altered or passed from one person to another “as a digital screenshot.” He cited Memo 20203-3, which states that a photo on a mobile device is not an acceptable form of ID, and raised concerns about technical issues when poll workers handle another person’s phone.
Karen Brinson Bell, executive director of the NCSBE, said there have been requests from other colleges in the state that use digital IDs, but those IDs have not been presented to the committee because they have “no expiration date.”
Brinson Bell said UNC’s digital ID is different because it displays an expiration date. She also said the mobile app “met the criteria” for an acceptable ID. Eggers disagreed, saying, “If you look at this as an ID and not a mobile app, that’s the sticking point.” Eggers said he wasn’t debating the expiration date requirements, but rather “whether this is an ID.”
“Mr. Eggers raises a technical question about statutory interpretation,” said Chairman Alan Hirsch. “In my opinion, there is certainly enough leeway in the law to authorize a digital card as a card. I think that’s the way life goes. … I think everyone from a certain, younger generation than us lives by that and doesn’t carry cards.”
Hirsch gave the example of digital boarding passes for airplanes. Eggers replied that the ID card needed to board the plane had to be in physical form.
Board member Kevin Lewis, the other Republican on the board, also said that using a digital ID violates a state law and asked Hirsch to “point out all this flexibility in the law because I don’t see it.” Hirsch responded by continuing the meeting and asking for further comment on the matter.
After a debate on the issue, the board voted to approve the Mobile UNC One Card, with all three Democratic members voting in favor and the two Republican members voting against.
The NCGOP rejected the approval in a post on X, saying that the NCSBE was “playing further games with election integrity.”
“Allowing a paper ‘digital ID’ VIOLATES voter ID requirements, especially when many other options are readily available and funded by state law,” the NCGOP wrote. “Rest assured – we will not tolerate it.”
