(The Center Square) — New Jersey's 'sore loser' law blocks independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. from appearing on the November ballot, according to a new lawsuit.
The lawsuit, filed in state Superior Court on Tuesday, argues that Kennedy is ineligible to run as an independent because doing so would violate a state law that bars individuals from running as non-party candidates in the same year they fail to win the nomination of a political party.
"Should Defendant Kennedy be permitted to run as an independent candidate, it will not only violate New Jersey’s public policy, but have the effect of diluting plaintiff’s vote," New Jersey election attorney Scott Salmon, a Democrat, wrote in the five-page complaint.
New Jersey's 'sore loser law' prohibits candidates who have been "a member of a political party at any time after the immediately preceding primary election for the general election," or who "unsuccessfully sought the nomination of a political party to such position in the primary election."
Kennedy wasn't on New Jersey's Democratic ballot, but he received hundreds of write-in votes from supporters in the state's June 4 primary and raised hundreds of thousands of dollars from New Jersey donors in his bid to unseat incumbent President Joe Biden.
In his complaint, Salmon cited recent New Jersey court cases where judges have repeatedly upheld the 'sore loser law' in recent years to preclude individuals from running as independents even when they did not appear on the primary ballot itself.
"Pursuant to the New Jersey Declaratory Judgments Act ... courts in New Jersey are authorized to declare rights, status and other legal relations so as to afford litigants relief from uncertainty and insecurity," he wrote.
Democrats have filed similar challenges in other states, including North Carolina, Delaware, Nevada and New York, to keep Kennedy off the November ballot amid concerns that he would siphon away votes from Biden, with the latest polls showing him neck-and-neck with former President Donald Trump.
Kennedy, the son of Robert F. Kennedy and nephew of the late President John F. Kennedy, announced in October that he was ending his campaign as a Democrat and launching an independent bid for the White House.
Kennedy vowed to get on the ballot in every state by the end of July, but so far he's only made it on the ballot in five states: Utah, Michigan, Delaware, Oklahoma and Tennessee.
New Jersey Secretary of State Tahesha Way has until Aug. 9 to certify independent candidates for the state's general election.
A request to the Kennedy campaign for comment wasn't immediately answered.
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