According to this news story from North Carolina, Democrats are fighting the attempt of the Service Employees International Union to qualify an independent candidate for U.S. House in the 8th district. Democrats say the petitioners are misinforming voters about the purpose of the petition, and are encouraging voters who signed the petition to withdraw their names.
No independent candidate for U.S. House has ever qualified to appear on a government-printed North Carolina ballot. North Carolina has had government-printed ballots since 1901.
I believe everyone should be on the ballot, but I honestly have to say that the Democratic Party is not making this up. I personally, as a student at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, went up to one of the petitioners since I saw they were petitioning (though I knew not what for at the time) and asked what they were petitioning for. Just like the article said, the petitioner said everything BUT to create a new party called the NC First (or NC Family First) Party. He said for better education and to keep libraries open in the area, etc. After I finally saw the petition that is when I knew what it was actually for.
I had previously planned to contact the NC First Party to obtain a petition actually to sign it for them, so I went ahead and signed because I think they should be able to be on the ballot, however their tactics are deceitful and I really see no reason to believe that they changed for the Unaffiliated Congressional District candidate ballot access. I just hope that if they get their candidate on the ballot, the first independent/unaffiliated for Congress in NC EVER, that it doesn’t adversely effect the current lawsuit, Greene v Bartlett.
These are probably paid petitioners. It may be their own plan to boost their signature rate, since they get paid on a per-signature rate. It will take further information to determine whether the deception is the fault of the union.