RFK, Jr; Qualifies For Ballot in Utah; Speaks to National Ballot Access Challenges

Current Independent (and former Democratic party primary) US presidential candidate, Robert F. Kennedy, Junior, has qualified in the first of 50 states (plus DC), for the the 2024 POTUS election. That state is Utah.

While thanking his supporters, staff, and volunteers, Kennedy also explicated some of the challenges his campaign is facing in achieving 50 state, plus DC, ballot access.  A process which he described as a “labyrinth of arcane rules” that are “extremely laborious”, “deliberately burdensome”, “arbitrary and capricious” and “undemocratic”.

He further indicated that ballot access is expected to cost his campaign approximately $15 million dollars.

Utah is the first state where his campaign has qualified for ballot access by submitting the required 1,000 validated signatures.  The campaign indicated they anticipate Arizona or Missouri will be next.

A (slightly edited, for clarity) transcript of Mr. Kennedy’s remarks in the video linked above, follows:

(IPR readers are encouraged to post any noteworthy errors or corrections in the comments below.)

SALT LAKE CITY, UT – JOE COOK (Utah Coordinator): . . . It is now my great pleasure to welcome to the podium our independent candidate for President of the United States, Mr. Robert F. Kennedy, Junior.

RFK, Jr: Thank you Joe Cook, and thank you Utah. Utah has, once again, shown that it is the Pioneer State. It is the first of our fifty states and the District of Columbia that we are going to register and get on the ballot.

I want to thank all of these leading volunteers by name:

Kirsten Macintyre, Jen Goodman, Dena Kennedy, Alex (unintelligible), Sadie Lynn Ledbetter, Todd Husband, Larry Cook, and Jay Gronkie.

Thank you all, very, very much.

This morning the campaign learned that three states are refusing to send us ballot petitions. Those are: Maine, New Hampshire, and North Dakota. This is something that would never happen to a presidential campaign from any of the major political parties. One of the side issues, that I think has been raised throughout this campaign, in many, many ways; is the undemocratic lock that the major political parties have on this process. Most democracies in the world have a variety of political parties. But the Democratic and Republican parties have succeeded in this country in implementing a number of rules and procedures that make it almost impossible for any normal American to challenge their chokehold.

We see this in many different ways across this campaign. In Utah, I want to thank Lieutenant Governor (Deidre) Henderson for cooperating in removing one of the unconstitutional barriers. We were litigating this case at the same time we were getting signatures. These volunteers went out and beat the clock anyhow. So we got more than double the signatures we needed and we got them on time, and we got them in this very, very short period, when there was snow, there was sleet, there was very bad weather. The volunteers had to go out into public places, and persuade passersby to take off their gloves to keep their ballot petition dry, and to sign their names even though they had shivering hands, in a way that was legible, and matched their driver’s license, because otherwise we were going to get challenged by the other sides’ lawyers. They did a spectacular job of getting our campaign on the ballot in this state.

Negotiating this labyrinth of these arcane rules that we now have in every state that are all designed to suppress dissent – to make sure that there are no options for Americans outside of the major political parties. 63 percent of Americans say that they do not think that the Democratic or Republican parties are adequately representing the viewpoints of this country, of Americans. And yet we are not allowed to . . . there are so many obstacles’ now put in the way, that any narrative that does not conform with the corporate-owned political parties that are representing us in Washington, DC.

I will just give you a couple of examples. Every state is different – and one of the problems is that we cannot even figure out what the rules are. Because the secretary of state does not know them, and the secretary of state and the websites give information that is not correct. So we have to have an entire staff that is constantly checking, constantly negotiating to force them to put it into writing in each state. Some of the rules are, I would say, extremely laborious and deliberately burdensome.

For example, in West Virginia, it is just this one state that does this, where you have to register in every single county in the state before you start collecting ballots (sic, NOTE: probably meant signatures) at all.

Massachusetts will invalidate an entire page of signatures if there is one stray mark on it. That gives the opportunity for the political parties to disrupt our ballot access by actually making those kinds of marks on the pages after a signature gatherer has (unintelligible).

Many of the states have rules that require notaries that in effect dictate minutiae about the ballot signature gatherers. They have very constricted dates. For example, California requires 219,000 signatures in fifteen weeks. So it is almost 15,000 a week. Texas in 11 weeks has 113,000, so more than 10,000 a week. They are arbitrary and capricious about how they administer it. New York in 2020 raised the signature burden from 15,000 to 45,000 without lengthening the window of six weeks.

So, again, it is all designed to keep third parties from getting on the ballot. We understand the system; President Biden and President Trump are getting on the ballot for free, but it is going to cost us somewhere around $15 million dollars to get on the ballot. But we are going to be able to do it, and in the end we are going to have an army in the field of very, very capable people like the ones you see here. We are able now to identify extraordinary leaders like Joe Cook. This process is forcing us to build our army now, and we are going to have a better army on the street, in the trenches, in November of 2024, when we need to do get-out-the-vote. In the end, this is going to give us an edge in all of these states.

Again, I want to thank all of these extraordinary volunteers. We are going to put you all on busses, if you want to get on them, and bring you to California and New York, and sign up people there.

I do want to mention some of the ties that my family has to Utah. I came to Utah with my dad to ski, but I also came and ran the Yampa River in 1965 with him. We learned to kayak the first time when I was 11 years-old. We visited San Juan County and the Navajo Reservation, and went across the border to Arizona to Red Rock. In 1967, we came back and ran the Grand Canyon with my dad, and Frank Moss was on that trip with us, who was very, very close to my father in the Senate. He was replaced by Orrin Hatch who became my uncle Ted Kennedy’s closest friend in the United States Senate – despite their antithetical political views. My uncle, President Kennedy, considered his speech to the LDS community in 1963, when he was trying to push through the first treaty of the nuclear age, the atmospheric test ban treaty, and it was considered to have no chance on Capitol Hill, and was very unpopular with the American public. One of the first stops that he made was here, speaking to a congregation of the LDS Church (NOTE: “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints), and he got a standing ovation. That turned the tide for the legislation that he considered (to be) the most important legacy of his term.

I come skiing here every year, I did for many years. The biggest fundraiser that we had was at Deer Valley, and my son went to high school here in Utah, the winter sports school. I have a lot of ties to this state; I love this state. I am very grateful for the role that these volunteers and the people of this state have played in this election process. So I am very happy to be here in Utah, I will be back in this state; I am very grateful to this state for this support.

So thank you very much; I am happy to take questions.

QUESTION: Can you elaborate more about ballot access challenges?

RFK, Jr: We are going to figure it out. We have a litigation team now, and we expect to litigate in a lot of states. We did litigate in this state. I am grateful again to Lieutenant Governor Henderson for shifting and enlarging the window in a way that we think was compliant with the Constitution. These are roadblocks; they are obstacles, but none of them are insurmountable. We will be on the ballot in 50 states and the District of Columbia.

QUESTION (about Donald Trump and ballot access):

RFK, Jr: I have been outspoken; I am not a fan of Donald Trump, and that is why I am running against him. But, I’ve been outspoken about criticizing the Colorado and Maine decisions because we have a democracy in this country; we do not have a Banana Republic – at least we are not supposed to. People ought to be able to vote for who they want to vote for. I do not want to beat Donald Trump (in the courts). I believe I can beat him in an election. I believe I can beat him in a debate. But I want to do that fair-and-square. I do not want the playing field slanted. I do not want to have an election where you get rid of a guy who a large percentage of the American public want as their leader. You are going to leave those people feeling angry, and frustrated – and justifiably so. I have read the opinions; I do not see how they can withstand Supreme Court scrutiny.

Donald Trump has not been convicted of leading an insurrection. Maybe he did it, but he has not been charged with it; he has not been convicted of it. So, I do not think it is fair; I do not think there is due process. Punishing him for a crime that he was never convicted of is not the American way of doing things. I think as a strategy, that it actually hurts the Democratic Party because I think it discredits them, and makes President Trump kind of into this mythological figure because people can see that this is not fair. I want to beat President Trump, but I want to beat him fair-and-square in an election where everybody gets to vote for who they want to vote for.

(Applause)

QUESTION: Can you give us an update on where you are with ballot access in other states?

RFK, Jr: Do you know where we expect to get it next?

STEFANIE SPEAR (Press Secretary): Yes. So a few states have been added because the window just opened as of the 2nd of January. We have been actively petitioning in Missouri and Maryland, so it’s likely those may be the next states. Arizona is a state where you had to have all your electors certified prior to starting petition gathering. We have certified all of our electors, so now we are active in Arizona as well. Nevada is a new state that just opened up. As well as New Hampshire, and as we mentioned, we are waiting to get the petition for New Hampshire. So, one of those states will be the next one – likely Arizona or Missouri.

RFK, Jr: There are 24 states where we need to have electors before we can even start gathering signatures and there are 27 states where we need a vice-presidential choice on the ballot (sic) before we can start gathering signatures. So, some of these states that are technically open are, for those reasons, mainly because we have not chosen a VP yet. We are actively involved in talks with a number of individuals. But, until we have a VP selected, we cannot put him (sic) . . . we cannot get on the ballot in those states.

We are not worried about that because almost all of those states have petition windows that go up to August, so we have a long time. The states that I mentioned before: New York, Texas, California, and a few others have very, very difficult ballot requirements and short windows.

QUESTION: Are you on the ballot in Utah?

RFK, Jr: Yes, we just had it stamped upstairs.

(Laughter, Applause)

STAFF: Any other questions?

RFK, Jr: We are very happy with our polling. The last three gold-standard polls that have come out: the Quinnipiac poll, the Harvard/Harris poll, and the New York/Siena poll, all show us beating both President Trump and President Biden in Americans under 45 years of age. That is really a bell-weather group. They also show us beating President Biden and President Trump among Independent voters. This year, for the first time in American history, that cohort of Independents is now the largest group in this country. More people self-identify as non-affiliated or Independent than either Republican or Democratic Party. We are doing well in many other groups. Hispanics, we are very strong, we are basically neck-and-neck with President Biden, and leading President Trump.

The Harvard/Harris poll shows us polling on average at between about 22 percent and 27 percent in the key battleground states. What that means is that we are within single digits of catching both President Trump and President Biden. Our average is 24 percent. If we get 10 more points, we could win the election. You can technically win the election with 34 percentage points, because it’s winner take all. What that means is, all we have to do is take 4.5 percentage points from each – President Trump and President Biden to win the national election. I have 11 months to do that. We are very, very confident that that is going to happen.

Thank you very much. To the volunteers, we are so grateful for all of you and for all of the hard work that you did to ensure that Utah remains the pioneer state.

Thank you all very much.

(Applause)

STAFF: So one down and 50 to go.