Anti-Trump PAC sues to keep RFK Jr. off the ballot in Pennsylvania
Third-party candidates have a history of acting as spoilers in Pa.
A Democratic-aligned political action committee has mounted a legal challenge that could block Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an independent candidate for president, from appearing on Pennsylvania’s ballot in November.
Kennedy, an environmental lawyer and longtime vaccine skeptic, has been working to secure ballot access in all 50 states. He filed paperwork for the Pennsylvania ballot in June.
Clear Choice Action challenged Kennedy’s petition in Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court on Thursday. The group, which is focused on targeting independent and third-party presidential candidates, has challenged Kennedy’s candidacy in other states, including New York and Illinois.
Though Kennedy’s candidacy does not present a serious challenge to either Vice President Kamala Harris or former President Donald Trump, he could pull enough votes from either candidate to sway the results in the crucial commonwealth.
A Philadelphia Inquirer/New York Times/Siena College poll in May found 10% of Pennsylvanians supported Kennedy. That poll, however, was taken before President Joe Biden ended his reelection campaign and Harris became the Democratic nominee.
Third party candidates have a history of acting as spoilers in Pennsylvania. In 2016, Green Party Candidate Jill Stein received nearly 50,000 votes in the state while former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton lost the state by just over 44,000 votes.
Before suspending his campaign Biden showed some evidence that he was worried about Kennedy’s role in the race. In April, he held a rally in Philadelphia alongside several members of the Kennedy family who announced their support for the incumbent Democratic president.
Clear Choice’s petition claimed Kennedy falsified his address on his paperwork and that several pages of petition signatures should be disregarded. It also argued that Pennsylvania law required Kennedy to submit more signatures than he gathered.
“All candidates for president of the United States must face the same scrutiny and meet the mandatory requirements for ballot access, yet time and again across the country Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his We the People Party have misled voters, failed to meet legal requirements, and made a mockery of the democratic process,” Clear Choice Action Founder Pete Kavanaugh said in a statement.
How quickly the case plays out could impact election offices across the state. County boards of election are allowed to begin mailing ballots to voters who requested them on Sept. 16 but they can begin that process only if any legal challenges to ballot access are concluded in time for accurate ballots to be printed.
Challenges to candidates on the ballot in April’s primary contributed to delays in ballot processing in Montgomery County, where mail ballots got to some voters just three days before the election.