North Carolina party recognition for groups seeking RFK Jr., West on ballot stopped for now

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — A divided North Carolina election board decided Wednesday to scrutinize further the attempts by political organizations to become official state parties by collecting signatures, with the goals of their supporters to get Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Cornel West on this fall’s presidential ballot in the battleground state.

The We The People party and Justice for All Party of North Carolina initiated petition drives to receive official party designations. That required a smaller fraction of the valid signatures from registered and qualified voters than Kennedy, an author and environmental lawyer, and West, a professor and progressive activist, would have needed if they sought to run statewide as independent candidates.

State elections officials confirmed to the board Wednesday that the groups had turned in more valid signatures than the 13,865 that were required. Based on those numbers, the two Republican board members backed motions to formally recognize the We The People party and Justice for All Party so they could field candidates.

But the three Democrats on the board voted against the motions. They agreed more examination was needed of the organization’s operations, including how signatures were collected, how party volunteers presented the petition’s goals to voters and what information was placed on petition lists.

<bsp-list-loadmore data-module="" class=«PageListStandardB» data-gtm-region=«RELATED COVERAGE» data-gtm-topic=«No Value» data-show-loadmore=«true» data-gtm-modulestyle=«List B»> <bsp-custom-headline custom-headline=«div»> RELATED COVERAGE </bsp-custom-headline> <bsp-custom-headline custom-headline=«div»> North Carolina legislators consider vetoes, constitution changes as work session