A Democratic super PAC is accusing supporters of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s presidential campaign. of misleading voters in their efforts to get Kennedy on the North Carolina ballot.
In a challenge the group says it filed with the State Board of Elections, it says people who signed ballot access petitions were made to believe they were signing to protect Robert F. Kennedy Jr. directly to the general election in November. Their signatures were actually collected in support of a spot on the ballot for a new political party, We The People, which was expected to put Kennedy forward as its candidate.
“It is deeply misleading for We The People to tell North Carolina voters that by creating the party they are putting Mr. Kennedy on the ballot, when in fact they are doing both much more and much less,” attorneys say representing the super PAC. , Clear Choice Action, according to a letter to the Board of Elections.
The petitions were “an unlawful attempt” by Kennedy to “circumvent the requirements for an unaffiliated candidacy by creating a sham political party,” the lawyers wrote.
The PAC also accused the new party of misstating a leader’s address on petition sheets.
“Any signatures collected on these apparently invalid petitions are themselves invalid,” the attorneys wrote. “As a result, We The People does not have sufficient valid signatures to meet the 13,865 valid signature threshold.”
In signed forms that Clear Choice Action submitted to the board, 20 people who signed the petitions requested that their signatures be rescinded, with many noting that they believed they were signing a petition to put Kennedy’s name on the ballot and “not introduce new political create a party’. .”
“At the time of my signing, I was not aware that the petition was intended to qualify We the People as a political party in North Carolina,” is one of the choices for petitioners to check the forms when describing their reason for withdrawal signatures.
The Kennedy campaign reached out for comment on Tuesday, saying it would consider comment, but had not yet responded when this story was published.
Pete Kavanaugh, the founder of Clear Choice Action, is a former aide to President Joe Biden, the Washington Post reported.
The News & Observer reported last week that Clear Choice Action had contacted voters who had signed the We the People petitions, along with those who had signed petitions for a party supporting another independent presidential candidate, Cornel West.
Both petitions are expected to be submitted to the Election Commission later this month.
A company representing Clear Choice Action has previously targeted third-party candidates and campaigns. The Elias Group, a Washington-based company with ties to major Democratic politicians, filed several complaints with the State Board of Elections in 2022 to prevent the Green Party from participating in the ballot, as previously reported by The News & Observer.
Because Democrats have previously tried to block third-party presidential campaigns, one proponent of putting West and Kennedy on the ballot wasn’t surprised when he got text messages from Clear Choice Action about his signatures, he recently told The N&O.
“The Democratic Party is really going to focus and put a lot of effort into keeping third party and independent candidates off the ballot,” said Matthew Hoh, who ran for U.S. Senate in 2022 as a Green Party candidate.
Under the dome
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