Dem
51
GOP
49
As we noted yesterday, Los Angeles resident Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been using a New York address on his candidacy paperwork. This is because his running mate, Nicole Shanahan, is also from California, and the Kennedy campaign is entertaining the delusion that it could win in the Golden State. If that did happen, the California electors would not be allowed to vote for both Kennedy and Shanahan.
Yesterday, New York Supreme Court Justice Christina Ryba had some bad news for Junior. She found that his claims of New York roots, and his promise that he is definitely moving back to the Empire State one of these days, might be truthful, but they are not relevant. What is relevant is that he does not live, and has never lived, at 84 Croton Lake Road, which is the address he used on his paperwork. That being the case, his paperwork is "intentionally misleading" and fraudulent, and so is invalid. That means he's off the ballot in New York State. The Supreme Court is the lowest court in New York state so Kennedy could appeal the decision to the New York Court of Appeals, which is the highest state court.
RFK Jr. was very angry about the ruling, and claimed that the whole thing is a Democratic conspiracy. However, he also got some good news yesterday. There was a lawsuit in North Carolina, not based on his address, but based on the claim that he subverted state election laws by forming a new political party in order to get on the ballot. If Kennedy tried to make it as an independent, he would have needed 80,000 signatures. However, by founding the We the People Party, and running as its candidate, he only needed 13,000 signatures. Wake County Superior Court Judge Keith Gregory affirmed the 4-1 ruling of the North Carolina State Board of Elections that Kennedy's machinations are fine and dandy. Why anyone in the future would ever run as an independent in North Carolina, as opposed to just making up a political party and nominating themselves as its candidate, we do not know.
Needless to say, Kennedy's ballot status in North Carolina is much more important than his ballot status in New York, since North Carolina is a potential swing state. The lawsuit in the Tar Heel State was filed by the North Carolina Democratic Party, but now that RFK Jr. appears to be taking more votes from Donald Trump than from Kamala Harris, the Party might be happy that it lost and might not bother to appeal.
At the moment, there is another Democratic-initiated "address" lawsuit pending against the Kennedy campaign, this one in the crucial swing state of Pennsylvania. One has to assume that if New York says he's not a resident of New York, then Pennsylvania will abide by that and toss him off the ballot. Beyond that, the ruling from Ryba opens a pretty solid opportunity for either party to get Kennedy off the ballot in the state(s) of their choice. We will soon learn if either party will avail themselves of that option. (Z)