On Tuesday, July 9, the North Carolina Board of Elections certified the Constitution Party for ballot status in North Carolina. The Board still has not ruled as to whether Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and Cornel West will be placed on the 2024 North Carolina general election ballot.
The rub is that the CP, Kennedy and West all used the political party petition process to get on the ballot, because North Carolina law (absurdly, in my view) requires only 13,757 signatures for a political party to qualify for the ballot this year, while an independent candidate for President must gather 82,542 signatures. There is a deep history, in NC and a few other states, of independent candidates using the party petition process to qualify for the ballot when the signature requirement is lower for political parties than independent candidates. But, this year there is a controversy with the NC Board of Elections as to whether that signature reducing maneuver is legal.
Here is a story on this matter.
Thanks to Chris Cole for the heads up!
Prima facie, I would agree that it is absurd to have much stricter requirements for independents than for parties. Especially since there is nothing preventing parties being founded to serve solely as vehicles for a single candidate’s ego. *cough* LaRouche *cough*
But is there any rationale, however convincing or unconvincing, given for the law being that way?
In the case of judicial elections, NC makes makes it hard to run as an independent, because despite hiding their affiliations on the ballot, (almost) all judicial candidates are either Democrat or Republican. So in that case the motivation is presumably to keep up the charade of non-partisan judiciary while preventing there from being any actual non-partisan judiciary. (Because who has ever heard of a third party judge in NC?)
But for the overtly partisan legislative and executive elections, that argument doesn’t hold water. So what is the excuse?
https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-judge-gives-massive-helping-155347628.html
GOP CONV
RESTRICTED PROTEST ZONE
—-
WILL PROTESTORS TRY TO INVADE GOP CONV BUILDING ???
SEE INVASION OF CAPITAL BLDG ON 6 JAN 2021.
—
HOW MANY CAMERAS / DOGS / LAND MINES / TANKS / ETC GUARDING THE GOP CONV BLDG / HOTELS
https://electionlawblog.org/?p=144379
ELB — STANDING MACHINATIONS IN ELECTION LAW CASE
ONE MORE PART OF THE DEEP STATE ???
LAWYERS TOO STUPID TO DETECT
1954 BROWN V BD OF ED —
SEPARATE IS NOT EQUAL
“But, this year there is a controversy with the NC Board of Elections as to whether that signature reducing maneuver is legal.”
After many years of allowing this petition route, someone decided to question whether it was actually legal? Seems to me that a de facto precedent has been set to allow it.
The fact that someone is stonewalling efforts to get third party Presidential candidates on the ballot in NC this year indicates to me that NC is very much in play.
Wishful thinking by the demon rats.
Trump will win NC very easily by a lot.
In 2004, a US District Court in North Carolina ruled that it is unconstitutional for the state to require more signatures for a statewide independent candidate than for a new party. DeLaney v Bartlett. The state is completely ignoring this ruling. After it was issued the legislature did made the two petitions equal. But then years later, they forgot all about it and eased the petition for party status.
The first independent candidate who created a new party in North Carolina for ballot access purposes was John Anderson in 1980. In North Carolina he created an “Independent Party”. So the tradition in North Carolina is quite well-established.
“But, this year there is a controversy with the NC Board of Elections as to whether that signature reducing maneuver is legal.”
Wasn’t it passed by the legislature and signed into law by the governor?
RW 845 AM —
ANY USA GRAND JURIES IN NC MEETING EACH WEEK DAY ???
18 USC 241- 242
Given that the Republicans are pro baby murder now, they should do well.
@Richard Winger
That should be a pretty cut-and-dry case for Kennedy, West or whoever decides to take it to court then, right? The 2004 ruling is already there, the only question is whether they will lower the number of signatures for an independent, or raise the number of signatures for a party, to make them match.
I saw your commentary regarding North Carolina’s double-standards in WCBE (Apr 2024) and WFAE (Sep 2022) – Do you know whether there was ever any attempt made a justification for why different standards were applied to new parties and independent campaigns in the first place?
Can the board of elections declare laws to be illegal? How ?
Well, would ya look at that
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/leaked-us-army-briefing-slide-calls-pro-life-organizations-terrorist-groups/
I guess that makes the Constitution Party’s presidential candidate a Randall Terry-rist now 😎 (Sorry I couldn’t resist)
They’ll declare the Constitution itself to be terrorist next.