West Campaign Joins New Lawsuit Against North Carolina State Board of Elections

Dr. Cornel West’s presidential campaign is joining a lawsuit against the North Carolina State Board of Elections initiated by a group of independent voters. The lawsuit claims that the Board received undue influence from the Democratic Party, ultimately resulting in the Justice for All Party’s exclusion from the state ballot.

The West campaign announced its participation in a press release on Friday. According to the release, the lawsuit follows information revealed during recent hearings of the House Oversight and Reform Committee indicating that the North Carolina State Board of Elections was allegedly influenced by operatives with the Democratic Party, leading to procedural issues during the signature verification process for the Justice for All Party.

The campaign further states that during the hearings, allegations were made by Democratic operatives who claimed that 78 out of North Carolina’s 100 counties failed to check signatures on petitions before sending them to the state. However, the state’s investigation found that only four counties were in violation or could not confirm proper signature verification.

“The discrepancy between the alleged number of 78 counties, and actual number of counties in violation – four – highlights the baseless nature of the accusations. The claim that three-quarters of the counties failed to verify signatures is demonstrably false. The weakness of these accusations is evident and underscores the lack of a substantial case against us. While these allegations are frustrating, they are ultimately encouraging as they reflect the desperate attempts to undermine our efforts,” said West campaign spokesperson Edwin DeJesus in the release.

The North Carolina State Board of Elections is also facing a separate lawsuit by the North Carolina Democratic Party, which is challenging the Board’s decision to allow the We The People Party to place independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on the ballot. That lawsuit argues that the We The People Party was established as a way to reduce the number of signatures Kennedy would have needed to appear on the ballot as an independent candidate.