Misleading petitions to certify third-party candidates should concern us all
The author says the State Board of Elections should carefully review attempts by what he describes as "sham political parties" to gain access to the fall ballot. (Photo: Clayton Henkel)
With the 2024 presidential election fast approaching, door-to-door volunteers and TV political ads are becoming more and more prominent. Every candidate is in high gear, with Republicans and Democrats going head-to-head. But what is seemingly going under the radar in states across the country, including right here in North Carolina, are third-party candidates and their plans to get on the ballot. Folks like Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Cornel West are trying to get on the ballot in our state propped up by Republicans who are attempting to politicize the process.
Bottom line: Every candidate and party must play by the same set of rules.
What we are seeing, right here in our own backyards, are blatant attacks from extremists trying to undermine our elections and harm North Carolina voters. Our own State Board of Elections (SBOE) has a duty to enforce our election laws, and now some shadow group is going to “be relentless in holding” the tireless civil servants of our state SBOE “accountable for their anti-democracy ruling.”
National Republicans have spent significant resources to lift up sham candidates to voters in North Carolina, and now they are using threats to undermine the very system in place to ensure all candidates meet the same requirements. We have seen the volunteers from these third-party campaigns, both in our state and across the country, misleading voters into signing their petitions to get these candidates on the ballot.
The North Carolina State Board of Elections is obligated to fairly and consistently enforce our state election laws, but as they seek to carry out that obligation, national Republicans are invoking shameful scare tactics and veiled threats aimed at individual members of the North Carolina State Board of Elections. While right-wing PACs run ads attacking North Carolina election board members, the SBOE has shown its commitment to upholding the laws of North Carolina in the face of threats and intimidation tactics.
If these sham parties fail to meet the legal standard and requirements, allowing them on the ballot disadvantages not just every other candidate, but the voters of North Carolina too. And as the SBOE carries out its legitimate and necessary investigations of fraud, attack ads pushing for a decision without knowing the full facts are the biggest threat to our free and fair elections.
If these campaigns are illegally claiming to represent a voter’s wishes by signing his or her name, that is a felony offense, and when there are clear signs of irregularities, the State Board of Elections must be empowered to investigate without political interference.
Attacks from right-wing politicians and PACs have become more prominent since Trump was elected into office. Now amid his re-election campaign, we are seeing these voter suppression and misinformation tactics continue to be used. By misleading voters to sign these petitions for these candidates, the Republican Party is trying to unfairly sway this election. Allowing candidates to create sham parties to skirt the state’s higher threshold for running as individual independent candidates would undermine the integrity of North Carolina’s electoral system.
While the focus here is on North Carolina, these sham parties have been using the same Republican-backed tactics in other states across the country. This has gone far from being about partisanship – it’s now about fairness, democracy, and protecting free and fair elections.
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