Aug. 13 (UPI) — A federal judge has ruled that independent presidential candidate Cornel West must be on North Carolina’s ballot for the November election, ruling that the state’s logic to keep West off the ballot was flawed.
On Monday, U.S. District Judge Terrence Boyle granted an emergency injunction to direct the North Carolina State Board of Elections to certify West’s Justice for All political party and its place, along with West, on November’s ballot in the swing-state.
This week’s decision comes after a group of West supporters made a legal challenge to the board’s original decision to deny ballot access.
“The board effectively disenfranchised over 17,000 North Carolina voters who signed petitions to certify JFA as a new political party on flawed, highly suspect grounds,” Boyle said.
Meanwhile, North Carolina’s board of elections told The Hill its attorneys currently are reviewing Boyle’s decision. However, the ballot printing process begins mid-August and the first absentee ballots will be sent Sept. 6 to North Carolina voters.
Boyle’s ruling contends that plaintiffs Johnny Thomas Ortiz II, Jimmie Gregory Rogers Jr. and Weldon Murphy were among thousands of North Carolina voters who signed petitions in order to certify JFA as a political party in the state and appear on this year’s election ballot.
Clear Choice Action, a Democrat-aligned group that files legal challenges for third-party ballot access, first brought it on JFA and West. West supporters claim the majority Democrat election board members had been overly reliant on the evidence given by CCA.
The board cited issues with petition gathering and potential fraud in JFA’s signature collection methods.
The lawsuit filed in federal court accused the state’s election board of violating JFA party members’ “core First Amendment rights as voters and citizens who wish to grow and develop a new political party in North Carolina.” Boyle agreed, calling the board’s action “a severe burden on First Amendment rights.”
“Narrow tailoring requires a scalpel; the board used a blunt instrument,” the judge wrote.
In a July meeting, the North Carolina Board of Elections voted 4-1 to allow ballot access for fellow Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr’s We The People Party, after originally denying it, at the same meeting it denied West and Justice For All.
The newly-formed JFA “submitted more validated signatures than needed under the relevant statute, and its submissions were timely,” the ruling states. “But the North Carolina State Board of Elections deemed JFA’s petitions not sufficient and voted not to certify JFA as a new political party.”
It outlines how JFA leaders began efforts in January to gather the needed 13,865 verified signatures in order to meet the May 17 deadline for the county boards of elections, submitting most sheets to county boards around the end of April beginning of May.
“JFA ultimately submitted 17,141 verified signatures, thus clearing that threshold a cushion of over 3,200 signatures.”
This arrives as a separate but similar petition challenge hearing for West is set to take place Wednesday afternoon in Maine for the former Green Party candidate.
But an official with North Carolina’s Justice for All party called it a “monumental day” for JFA and supporters of a “diverse political representation.”
“The court’s decision to allow our candidates on the ballot is not just a win for JFA but a victory for every North Carolinian who believes in the power of choice and the strength of democracy,” the state’s JFA Co-Chair Italo Medelius said in a statement.
If Boyle’s decision stands as is come November, then two third-party candidates for president will be on the North Carolina ballot in addition to the Democratic nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris, and the Republican nominee, former President Donald Trump.