OPINION:
The next time Vice President Kamala Harris or her media allies claim that Republicans are “suppressing the vote” or a “threat to democracy,” one should immediately direct attention to Biden-Harris supporters’ ongoing assault on voting rights in North Carolina.
This year, three new political parties sought North Carolina ballot access: the Constitution Party, We the People and Justice for All. All three parties submitted their petitions with substantially more signatures than required in a timely fashion, meeting all statutory requirements for ballot access. Afraid that the Democrats would lose supporters to these new parties, the Biden-Harris team persuaded Democratic members of the North Carolina State Board of Elections to drag their feet on the certification of two of the parties, and on July 16, the board declined to certify the Justice for All party.
This voter suppression effort started with Democratic operatives filing what can only be called bad-faith challenges with the Board of Elections. First, the North Carolina Democratic Party sought to prevent third-party candidates from accessing the ballot by asserting that We the People and Justice for All were not legitimate parties. The allegation was that the parties attempted to circumvent requirements for unaffiliated candidate ballot access by using the less stringent standard for creating a new political party. The Democratic Party couldn’t and didn’t identify any statute that the parties violated.
Undeterred by the lack of a legal argument against the existence of these new parties, a Democratic-run super PAC called Clear Choice Action proceeded to challenge We the People’s and Justice for All’s rights to ballot access. The Washington Post explained that President Biden’s allies explicitly set up Clear Choice to “stop any third-party or independent candidates from gaining traction before the November Election.”
The North Carolina Democratic Party is afraid that We the People’s nomination of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for president and Justice for All’s nomination of Cornel West will draw Democratic voters away from the Democratic nominee. In their attempt to eliminate competition, Clear Choice Action personnel have encouraged those who have signed these parties’ petitions to withdraw their names from them. We the People’s chairwoman, Ceara Foley, explained that contacted voters are being “emotionally manipulated” by Clear Choice Action. Amazingly, the Board of Elections has refused to even investigate Clear Choice Action’s apparent election interference and voter intimidation.
This Democrats’ voter suppression scheme culminated last week when the Board of Elections declined to certify Justice for All and only reluctantly certified We the People. Rather than following the law or identifying any standard, the Board of Elections made its decisions based on whether the board members personally felt that the parties should be recognized. It seems that the Board of Elections disagreed with certifying either party but opted to certify one in an attempt to restore a semblance of credibility after being faced with public criticism for their unlawful voter suppression.
The voter suppression scheme here is not new to Democrats. In 2022, they sought to prevent the Green Party from being certified as a political party in North Carolina and from having candidates appear on the November 2022 ballot. Ultimately, the Green Party was certified, its candidates could appear on the ballot, and Democratic lawyers were sanctioned in federal court for their conduct.
When Democratic lawyers talk about “the fight for democracy” and make claims about “voter suppression,” remember that in the 2022 matter involving the Green Party, attorneys at the same law firm now representing Clear Choice Action’s voter suppression efforts were ordered to pay the attorneys fees incurred by the Green Party of North Carolina because of their misconduct. Intimidating petition signatories and trying to take choices away from voters is the opposite of fighting for democracy.
• Charlie Spies is a former counsel for the Republican National Committee and former counsel to the chairman of the Federal Election Commission.
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