Richard Winger will have more on this case in the near future.
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The Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Campaign filed a Complaint with the Federal Election Commission stating that this criterion that would be used to include Joe Biden and Donald Trump in a Thursday, June 27 debate that might exclude RFK, Jr. could not legally be employed without triggering illegal corporate contributions to the Biden and Trump Campaigns. It appears that the FEC agrees.
North Carolina is one of six states in which it is easier to qualify a new party for the ballot than complete an Independent petition for President. Yes, it does seem illogical, but that is also the case in Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Hawaii and Texas.
And, North Carolina’s disparity is very large, currently 82,542 signatures for an Independent presidential petition and only 13,757 signatures for a new political party. This has been a long-time common path for Independent presidential candidates to take to minimize the cost of petition drives. There really isn’t anything new here.
Yet, Democratic PAC Clear Choice Action is calling the We the People Party a “sham party” and is urging the rejection of the petition by the NC State Board of Elections.
Here is the latest on this matter.
Here is a commentary from UC Davis Law Professor Vikram David Amar on the recent Illinois State Court decision that ruled unconstitutional (for 2024 only) a recent law passed in Illinois that bars “slating,” or the placement of candidates of established parties on General Election ballots, after the Primary date, when a party did not have a candidate in that district who gathered a sufficient number of signatures to appear on the Primary ballot in that district. This was because the court found that the law change was changing the rules in the middle of the election process for 2024.
In future years, the law will be to the detriment of Illinois voters, as there will be fewer contested General Elections in Illinois.
The North Dakota Constitutional Amendment passed yesterday with a 61% Yes vote (a majority vote was needed) that bars candidates for US House or US Senate who would attain their 81st birthday by December 31 of the year preceding the year in which their term ended.
So, this could stop some people who are younger than 79 years (for US House elections) and younger than 75 years (for US Senate elections) on Election Day from seeking office.
This will likely face legal challenges based on the US Constitution and prior rulings that qualifications for federal offices cannot be more than those stated in the US Constitution (e.g., the US Term Limits decision of the US Supreme Court).