On July 22, some North Carolina voters who want to vote for Cornel West for President filed a federal lawsuit over the North Carolina Election Board’s denial of ballot access to West’s Party, Justice for All. Ortiz v North Carolina Board of Elections, 5:24cv-420.
The case is very similar to the 2022 North Carolina Green Party case, in which the court ordered the Board to certify the Green Party. The new case is assigned to U.S. District Court Judge Terrance Boyle, a Reagan appointee.
According to this story, J. D. Vance voted for independent presidential candidate Evan McMullin in November 2016. He said this in 2021 in an interview with Time Magazine.
McMullin was on the ballot in 2016 in Kentucky. In Ohio he was a declared write-in candidate and he was credited with 12,574 votes. It is not clear which state Vance lived in at the time.
The mention of his 2016 vote is under “Vance’s Political Turn” in the first paragraph.
This NPR/PBS Newshour Poll shows that when only Donald Trump and Kamala Harris are mentioned, Trump leads by one point. But when the poll includes Robert F. Kennedy, Jr, Jill Stein, Chase Oliver, and Cornel West, Trump and Harris are tied.
Reuters seems to have conducted to first poll for president listing Kamala Harris as the Democratic nominee. When only Donald Trump and Harris are mentioned, Harris leaders Trump by two points. But when Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., is included, Harris leads Trump by four points, with Kennedy at 8%. See here.
A New Jersey state trial court will hear Salmon v Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. on Friday, July 26. This is a lawsuit filed by a New Jersey voter to keep Kennedy off the general election ballot as an independent. The challenger says that Kennedy can’t be on the ballot because he got some write-ins in the June 4, 2024 Democratic presidential primary, and therefore he is a “sore loser”.
Kennedy responds that he didn’t file a petition to be on the June primary ballot and is therefore not a “sore loser”. He also says there are procedural objections to the lawsuit. Kennedy’s brief does not mention the fact that New Jersey’s sore loser law has been held not to apply to presidential primaries. Both Lyndon LaRouche (in 1992) and David Duke (in 1988) did petition to be on the Democratic primary ballot, and then also petitioned to be on the general election ballot as independents.
The case is in Mercer Superior Court, MER-L241-24.
