North Carolina approves party seeking to put RFK Jr. on the ballot, rejects effort for Cornel West

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina’s election board voted Tuesday to certify a political party that wants to put Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on the state’s presidential ballot this fall. The panel rejected a similar petition effort by a group backing Cornel West, citing questions about how signatures were collected.

After weeks of reviewing the signature drives, the board voted 4-1 to recognize the We The People party that Kennedy, an author and environmental lawyer, is using as a vehicle to run in a handful of states. The election board decision means the party can place Kennedy on statewide ballots.

The board’s Democratic majority voted 3-2 along party lines to block the Justice for All Party of North Carolina from ballots. That group is backing West, a professor and progressive activist.

We The People and Justice for All each collected enough valid signatures from registered and qualified voters. The 13,865 required are a small fraction of those needed to run as an independent candidate in North Carolina, which Kennedy initially attempted.

Board Chair Alan Hirsch, a Democrat, said that while he believed thousands of signatures turned in by Justice for All were credible, he had serious misgivings about the purpose of signature collectors unrelated to the group that also turned in petitions.

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