Independent Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speaks during a campaign rally at Legends Event Center on Dec. 20, 2023 in Phoenix, Arizona. (Photo by Rebecca Noble/Getty Images)
The state Democratic Party wants presidential hopeful Robert F. Kennedy Jr. kept off ballots in Washington this November.
It contends the 4,181 signatures submitted by We the People in support of Kennedy’s nomination were not collected at a party convention as required by state law , making him ineligible to be one of voters’ choices.
Kennedy’s campaign website listed various events and locations, like the Olympia Farmers Market, where registered voters could sign nomination petitions but that doesn’t comport with the law’s requirement, Democratic Party lawyers argued in an Aug. 9 letter to Secretary of State Steve Hobbs.
Who might make the ballot
Washington voters may have up to 11 presidential tickets to consider this fall. In addition to Democrats Kamala Harris and Tim Walz and Republicans Donald Trump and J.D. Vance, here are the minor party tickets under review by the secretary of state’s office.
We The People Party: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Nicole Shanahan
Green Party: Jill Stein and Samson LeBeau Kpadenou
Socialism and Liberation Party: Claudia De la Cruz and Karina Garcia
Socialist Workers Party: Rachele Fruit and Dennis Richter
Socialist Equality Party: Joseph Kishore and Jerry White
Libertarian Party: Chase Oliver and Mike ter Maat
Cascade Party: Krist Novoselić and James Carroll
Justice For All Party: Cornel West and Melina Abdullah
Independent Candidate: Shiva Ayyadurai and Crystal Ellis
“Simply gathering signatures does not constitute a convention,” they wrote.
A spokesman for the secretary of state’s office on Monday did not say when a decision on Kennedy’s status will be made. Democratic Party lawyers expect it this week and state officials previously said Aug. 23 was the deadline to get names of all presidential candidates certified.
“The letter is under review, as are materials from the We The People party and others seeking to place nominees for president and vice president on Washington’s November ballot,” Derrick Nunnally, deputy director of external affairs, wrote in an email. There are nine minor parties that have filed to be on the ballot, he said.
Attempts to reach the Kennedy campaign and We the People were unsuccessful Monday.
Coast-to-coast battles
Democrats are challenging Kennedy’s ballot access in several states.
On Monday, a state judge in North Carolina repelled an attempt by the North Carolina Democratic Party to keep him off ballots in that state. A lawsuit filed by the party challenged a decision of the state Board of Elections to grant We the People status as a political party.
Meanwhile, in New York, a judge ruled Monday that Kennedy cannot appear on the state’s ballot. He has three days to appeal that ruling, The New York Times reported .
Clear Choice Action, a Democrat-aligned super PAC, has also filed challenges in Pennsylvania and Illinois, according to press accounts.
In an Aug. 8 press release , the Kennedy campaign said it has won ballot access legal challenges, including in Hawaii, Idaho, New Jersey, North Carolina, and Utah.
In Washington, Kennedy turned in paperwork plus signatures of registered voters on June 14 . He was the first minor party candidate to do so.
Under state law, minor party candidates can qualify by collecting signatures of at least 1,000 registered voters at one or more conventions . Those conventions must be held between the first Saturday in May and the fourth Saturday in July. At least 10 days before a convention, the minor party must publish a notice in a newspaper of general circulation of when and where it will be conducted.
Washington law says a convention can be a meeting of as few as 100 registered voters. If there are multiple conventions, each must have its own notice.
In addition, a registered voter can sign a petition for only one minor party candidate. State election officials will not count signatures of voters who sign more than one petition.
While We the People submitted affidavits showing public notices for conventions, it did not hold any, Democratic Party lawyers argue in their letter.
They contend those affidavits identify seven locations for signature gathering: Riverfront Spokane, Lilac Marketplace Spokane, Olympia Farmers Market, Thriftapalooza in Puyallup, the Puyallup Meeker Days Festival, Greenlake Seattle, and “the public area outside all U.S. Post Offices in King County.”
Lawyers also noted the party sent out appeals on X, formerly Twitter, of where people could go to sign a petition.
“Again, these instructions demonstrate that We the People did not intend to hold an organized assemblage of voters in order to gather signatures,” they wrote.
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