The Justice For All Party said Thursday that it will file a lawsuit challenging the North Carolina Board of Elections decision this week not to certify the organization as a political party. That decision means its candidate, progressive academic Cornel West, can’t appear on the state’s ballot for president.
Italo Medelius, the chair of North Carolina’s Justice For All Party, said the group was “expecting the denial” and “has a legal team ready.”
He said the group “fully expects to be on the ballot in November.”
The Democratic-majority elections board voted 4-1 to certify the We The People Party, allowing Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to appear on the ballot for president.
But it voted 3-2 against allowing Justice for All a spot on the ballot, after elections board staff found people who said they either hadn’t signed the party’s petition or didn’t know what it was for. The vote broke down along party lines, with all three Democrats voting no. They cited concerns about how Justice For All gathered signatures and whether voters really understood they were signing a petition to recognize a new party.
The two Republicans voted in favor.
It’s possible both Kennedy and West could siphon votes from Democratic President Joe Biden.
The North Carolina Democratic Party objected to both parties being on the ballot.
After the vote, West wrote on social media that "Democracy is under attack! The NC Board of Elections and the Democrats are blocking the Justice For All Party from the ballot. We must stand up and fight back! Demand justice and ensure every vote counts."
The dispute is similar to a fight over the Green Party’s ballot access in 2022. The Greens sued the state of North Carolina and were ultimately given a place on the ballot for the midterms as well as this fall’s election.
Republican Board of Elections member Stacy Eggers said the board has put itself in a difficult spot by voting against West’s party.
“In light of the Green Party case I’m surprised we are following that same path because I don’t think it ended well for the reputation of the State Board,” he said.
Eggers said it’s a slippery slope to ask people whether they understood what they were signing. He said there is no way for someone to take their vote back once they have cast it, and he said signing a petition is similar.
“I think my colleagues are misguided,” he said, “When you get into the idea of whether I need to be reeducated because you are in the wrong political party.”
He added: “Whether folks sign it for a good reason or a bad reason or a stupid reason, we ought not to go there.”
He said the group submitted more than 30,000 signatures and roughly 17,000 were validated by local county elections boards. A political party needs just under 14,000 signatures to be recognized as a party.
Staff members said during Tuesday's hearing that they had tried to contact 250 voters who signed the petition for recognition, but were able to reach only 49. Nearly half of those said they didn't recall signing the petition, were unsure what they had signed, or weren't aware they were signing an application for a new political party.
National polls have shown West getting between 1% and 2% of the vote.
Donald Trump won North Carolina by less than 1.5% in 2020.
