Democrats lose 2 of 3 ballot access lawsuits (08-13-2024--Hour2)

[00:00:04] [SPEAKER_00]: What's going on? Thank you so much for listening to this podcast. It is heard live every day from noon to 3 on WBT Radio in Charlotte. And if you want exclusive content like invitations to events, the weekly live stream, my daily show prep with all the links, become a patron, go to thepetekalendershow.com. Make sure you hit the subscribe button, get every episode for free, right to your smartphone or tablet. And again, thank you so much for your support.

[00:00:28] [SPEAKER_00]: So Democrats have lost 2 of the 3 lawsuits to try to protect the democracy by limiting the choices that voters have in the presidential race. That's right. 3 different lawsuits, 2 of them right here in North Carolina, one up in New York. That's the one that they won. The 2 they lost were here in North Carolina.

[00:00:53] [SPEAKER_00]: So, going to the Carolina Journal page, carolinajournal.com, a federal judge is ordering North Carolina's State Board of Elections to certify the Justice for All Party, JFA. Not JFK, not RFK, but JFA, Justice for All.

[00:01:16] [SPEAKER_00]: And the judge, the federal judge, is ordering the State Board of Elections to add all of the JFA candidates to the November ballot.

[00:01:27] [SPEAKER_00]: And that means voters would have the chance to choose left of center activist and academic Cornel West in the race for president.

[00:01:37] [SPEAKER_00]: Cornel West is one of the people that's running for president that Democrats are afraid will draw votes from their candidate, Kamala Harris, formerly Joe Biden.

[00:01:49] [SPEAKER_00]: The elections board denied JFA ballot access last month in a party line three to two vote.

[00:01:57] [SPEAKER_00]: The board's Democrat majority rejected party certification for the Justice for All Party.

[00:02:04] [SPEAKER_00]: Republican board members had supported their bid.

[00:02:06] [SPEAKER_00]: So, the U.S. District Judge Terrence Boyle ruled that the plaintiffs representing JFA, that they are probably more likely to win their argument than the Board of Elections.

[00:02:24] [SPEAKER_00]: And their argument is that the Board of Elections violated the Justice for All Party's First Amendment rights by denying them ballot access.

[00:02:37] [SPEAKER_00]: So, the board, so this is from the judge, quote,

[00:02:41] [SPEAKER_00]: The board's conclusion that a substantial portion of signers advised the board that they did not sign and that many others were not told of JFA's purpose does not withstand scrutiny.

[00:02:53] [SPEAKER_00]: The board relied on a survey completed by staffers that suffers from serious flaws.

[00:02:59] [SPEAKER_00]: All right, what is this about?

[00:03:00] [SPEAKER_00]: Well, in order to get on the ballot, if you are not the Republican Party or the Democrat Party or even now the Libertarian Party,

[00:03:08] [SPEAKER_00]: because they've had enough elections where their candidates get enough percentages of the votes each time.

[00:03:13] [SPEAKER_00]: And I believe the test is for governor.

[00:03:17] [SPEAKER_00]: I believe that's the you got to get like one percent of the votes for governor, I believe is how that goes.

[00:03:23] [SPEAKER_00]: I think it's still governor.

[00:03:23] [SPEAKER_00]: But these rules have changed.

[00:03:25] [SPEAKER_00]: The laws have changed over the years.

[00:03:27] [SPEAKER_00]: They used to be far more restrictive.

[00:03:30] [SPEAKER_00]: And 20, 25 years ago, the Libertarians were constantly being decertified as a political party in North Carolina.

[00:03:39] [SPEAKER_00]: And what that means is if you are decertified, then you don't, you know, get automatic ballot access.

[00:03:47] [SPEAKER_00]: In other words, your candidates don't automatically appear on the Board of Elections ballot.

[00:03:53] [SPEAKER_00]: So you then have to go and collect signatures.

[00:03:56] [SPEAKER_00]: You got to go out.

[00:03:58] [SPEAKER_00]: You got to ask people, hey, would you mind signing this petition to give us ballot access to recognize us?

[00:04:06] [SPEAKER_00]: So the board will recognize us as a party.

[00:04:08] [SPEAKER_00]: And you got to get a certain number of those, a certain number of signatures and the number of signatures is based on the number of votes cast, I believe, in the last gubernatorial election or something.

[00:04:21] [SPEAKER_00]: So they have all of these regulations.

[00:04:23] [SPEAKER_00]: So you don't just have, you know, political parties getting on the ballot all willy nilly.

[00:04:28] [SPEAKER_00]: God forbid you have a ballot that's got, you know, 17 names running for governor.

[00:04:34] [SPEAKER_00]: That's only in the primary.

[00:04:38] [SPEAKER_00]: So the ballot access laws used to be far more restrictive.

[00:04:42] [SPEAKER_00]: I think, like I said, I think now it's like one or one and a half percent.

[00:04:45] [SPEAKER_00]: It used to be much higher.

[00:04:47] [SPEAKER_00]: I think it was like three or five percent.

[00:04:49] [SPEAKER_00]: And that was very onerous.

[00:04:51] [SPEAKER_00]: And so what it and this was, by the way, those laws were put in place by Democrats when they ran the state government.

[00:04:58] [SPEAKER_00]: For a century plus, they put those laws in place.

[00:05:02] [SPEAKER_00]: Now, Republicans were not interested.

[00:05:03] [SPEAKER_00]: It's not like they were running around screaming for more ballot access for, you know, libertarians either.

[00:05:09] [SPEAKER_00]: Don't get me wrong.

[00:05:09] [SPEAKER_00]: But the.

[00:05:13] [SPEAKER_00]: The parties that were that had to constantly come through and get signatures would devote a lot of time, manpower hours.

[00:05:22] [SPEAKER_00]: They would devote money right in order to do this stuff first.

[00:05:26] [SPEAKER_00]: And all the dollars that they're spending to get the signatures meant that they couldn't spend the money on campaigning, recruiting candidates, advertising, whatever.

[00:05:36] [SPEAKER_00]: And so you're putting these third parties at an immediate disadvantage.

[00:05:42] [SPEAKER_00]: Now, the longer a party survives and can field candidates and can generate support, then you don't have to keep going through the petition process.

[00:05:50] [SPEAKER_00]: And that's where the libertarians are.

[00:05:51] [SPEAKER_00]: I believe the Green Party is there, too.

[00:05:53] [SPEAKER_00]: They don't.

[00:05:54] [SPEAKER_00]: Although, well, last time, what, two years ago in the U.S.

[00:05:59] [SPEAKER_00]: Senate race, Democrats tried to keep the libertarian or no, the Green Party can to try to keep him.

[00:06:04] [SPEAKER_00]: Matthew Ho, I think his name was.

[00:06:06] [SPEAKER_00]: They tried to keep him off the ballot because they thought he would draw votes away from Sherry Beasley, who was running for U.S.

[00:06:12] [SPEAKER_00]: Senate.

[00:06:14] [SPEAKER_00]: And they failed in that attempt.

[00:06:16] [SPEAKER_00]: Matthew Ho did get ballot access at the time.

[00:06:19] [SPEAKER_00]: But the Board of Elections, which I feel the need to point this out because I think it's kind of important.

[00:06:24] [SPEAKER_00]: The Board of Elections is appointed by the governor and the majority of the Board of Elections is of the same party as the governor.

[00:06:34] [SPEAKER_00]: And by the way, that model is replicated throughout all the counties as well.

[00:06:39] [SPEAKER_00]: So far be it for me to suggest that the Board of Elections might actually have some kind of political taint to it.

[00:06:49] [SPEAKER_00]: But.

[00:06:51] [SPEAKER_00]: It has political taint to it.

[00:06:53] [SPEAKER_00]: OK, so the and remember that the legislature, Republican controlled legislature, tried to change the makeup of the Board of Elections to make it more.

[00:07:04] [SPEAKER_00]: Dare I say equitable.

[00:07:08] [SPEAKER_00]: No, they wanted to have it balanced out.

[00:07:11] [SPEAKER_00]: So this way it wasn't controlled by one political party.

[00:07:15] [SPEAKER_00]: And the governor, in order to protect our democracy, he sued.

[00:07:20] [SPEAKER_00]: And he won.

[00:07:22] [SPEAKER_00]: And so he was able to keep control of the Board of Elections under his authority.

[00:07:27] [SPEAKER_00]: And that's that's also one of the reasons why Roy Cooper and Democrats and media.

[00:07:34] [SPEAKER_00]: But I repeat myself that why they are kind of worried about somebody like Mark Robinson winning the the governor's race is that Republicans would then be able to control the boards of election.

[00:07:45] [SPEAKER_00]: And Democrats are very worried about that.

[00:07:49] [SPEAKER_00]: So the board, when it gets this request, its petition, these petition signatures.

[00:07:56] [SPEAKER_00]: For the Justice for All Party.

[00:07:59] [SPEAKER_00]: They proceed to do some surveys.

[00:08:02] [SPEAKER_00]: So they start calling up some of the people that had signed the petition because the Democrats that filed a lawsuit saying that the people who signed the petition were misled.

[00:08:13] [SPEAKER_00]: They weren't told what this was really about.

[00:08:15] [SPEAKER_00]: And the Justice for All Party is like, that's not true.

[00:08:18] [SPEAKER_00]: We gave them.

[00:08:19] [SPEAKER_00]: We gave them all the materials like, here's what we gave them.

[00:08:23] [SPEAKER_00]: And they knew what they were signing and that sort of thing.

[00:08:26] [SPEAKER_00]: Well, the State Board of Elections staffers, not the board itself, but some of the staffers, they make some phone calls.

[00:08:32] [SPEAKER_00]: And then the board says, well, based on the responses from these few phone calls, we are going to extrapolate out and say that they did not qualify enough people legitimately to sign the petitions.

[00:08:46] [SPEAKER_00]: And the judge looked at that and said, yeah, that's crap.

[00:08:51] [SPEAKER_00]: He said to extrapolate from this survey that a substantial portion of signers did not sign and that, quote, many others were not informed of the purpose and intent of signing defies reason.

[00:09:05] [SPEAKER_00]: He said the board effectively disenfranchised over 17,000 North Carolina voters who signed petitions to certify JFA Justice for All as a new political party based on flawed, highly suspect grounds.

[00:09:21] [SPEAKER_00]: The order that the judge entered requires certification of the Justice for All party under the state law governing new political parties.

[00:09:33] [SPEAKER_00]: And then he blocked the elections board from enforcing a July 1st filing deadline.

[00:09:41] [SPEAKER_00]: That's how they also jammed up.

[00:09:42] [SPEAKER_00]: Democrats jammed them up by slow walking the process, filing the lawsuits.

[00:09:47] [SPEAKER_00]: And then the July 1st deadline hits.

[00:09:49] [SPEAKER_00]: And now they're like, oh, you didn't make it by the deadline.

[00:09:52] [SPEAKER_00]: Sorry, you didn't get your stuff approved.

[00:09:55] [SPEAKER_00]: Because you guys gummed up the works.

[00:09:57] [SPEAKER_00]: With the intention of making them miss the deadline.

[00:10:02] [SPEAKER_00]: Democrats lose two of three lawsuits trying to keep.

[00:10:06] [SPEAKER_00]: Leftist, lefty, lefter, progressive, liberal, whatever you want to call them, candidates off of the presidential ballot because that means democracy.

[00:10:17] [SPEAKER_00]: Fewer options for voters means protecting democracy.

[00:10:23] [SPEAKER_00]: The plaintiffs in the case that went up to North Carolina federal judge Boyle is his name.

[00:10:35] [SPEAKER_00]: The plaintiffs in the case, the Justice for All party, say that in their filing with the court, they said it is not in dispute that the Justice for All party of North Carolina complied in a timely fashion with all of the statutory requirements in order to be certified as a political party under the law in North Carolina.

[00:11:00] [SPEAKER_00]: The JFA submitted petitions with more than 17,000 signatures that were validated by the county boards of election.

[00:11:10] [SPEAKER_00]: That was more than they needed.

[00:11:12] [SPEAKER_00]: They only needed like 13,800 and they had 17,362.

[00:11:20] [SPEAKER_00]: So that alone, right, they went above and beyond what the law required.

[00:11:24] [SPEAKER_00]: The petitions contained the required statutory language and format.

[00:11:31] [SPEAKER_00]: The petitions and corresponding training materials that were used by the JFA informed petition signers of the general purpose and intent of the new party.

[00:11:44] [SPEAKER_00]: Okay.

[00:11:44] [SPEAKER_00]: So they complied with the state law.

[00:11:46] [SPEAKER_00]: They said that the defendants inquiry, the board of elections, the state board of elections, that their inquiry should have ended there.

[00:11:57] [SPEAKER_00]: But instead, the chairman and the Democrat majority on the board of elections arbitrarily and without statutory authority decided to subjectively probe the purpose and intent of the Justice for All party based on what?

[00:12:15] [SPEAKER_00]: What would prompt the board of elections to do this?

[00:12:18] [SPEAKER_00]: Well, submissions by Democrat operatives.

[00:12:23] [SPEAKER_00]: The operatives include an organization called Clear Choice Action, which, by the way, filed its own brief in the case.

[00:12:34] [SPEAKER_00]: Clear Choice Action.

[00:12:36] [SPEAKER_00]: Remember that name because it's going to pop up a couple times.

[00:12:40] [SPEAKER_00]: Lawyers for Republican lawmakers who also filed with the court in what's called an amicus brief.

[00:12:47] [SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes they call it an amicus brief.

[00:12:50] [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know the correct pronunciation.

[00:12:51] [SPEAKER_00]: I don't care.

[00:12:53] [SPEAKER_00]: I like amicus better.

[00:12:54] [SPEAKER_00]: So I'm going to use it.

[00:12:56] [SPEAKER_00]: But it's a friend of the court.

[00:12:57] [SPEAKER_00]: In other words, you're not a party to the lawsuit, but you've got an interest in it.

[00:13:01] [SPEAKER_00]: So you're going to file an argument in support of one side or the other.

[00:13:04] [SPEAKER_00]: And the Republicans filed a lawsuit, a friend of the court brief, I should say, in support of the Justice for All party, saying the North Carolina House of Representatives has a strong interest in the case.

[00:13:16] [SPEAKER_00]: And they said, following an organized campaign by out-of-state political operatives, the North Carolina Democrat Party and a partisan front group specifically formed to coordinate attacks on third party candidates.

[00:13:33] [SPEAKER_00]: The North Carolina State Board of Elections then refused to certify the Justice for All party as a new party.

[00:13:39] [SPEAKER_00]: In doing so, the defendants, the Board of Elections, excluded the Justice for All party candidates, including presidential nominee Dr. Cornel West, from the 2024 general election ballot in our state.

[00:13:53] [SPEAKER_00]: And they deprived plaintiffs of their right to cast ballots for him in November.

[00:14:00] [SPEAKER_00]: They go on to say that the Board of Elections cited no legal authority for its action.

[00:14:06] [SPEAKER_00]: The board claimed to be investigating allegations of fraud, but the board conceded that the Justice for All party submitted more than enough valid signatures than required under state law.

[00:14:19] [SPEAKER_00]: And the board rejected the Justice for All party's bid during the same meeting when it voted four to one to approve ballot access for Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his We the People party.

[00:14:33] [SPEAKER_00]: That was a four to one vote.

[00:14:35] [SPEAKER_00]: The state elections board also rejected Justice for All's ballot access request to two subsequent meetings, June 28th and July 9th.

[00:14:45] [SPEAKER_00]: The complaint from the Justice for All party, according to the Carolina Journal, highlighted efforts from the Democrat Party and clear choice action to keep the new party off the ballot.

[00:14:58] [SPEAKER_00]: Clear choice action was created by Democrats to limit the voices of North Carolina voters in order to protect and advance their own political agenda, according to the complaint.

[00:15:08] [SPEAKER_00]: And that complaint quotes a Washington Post article.

[00:15:12] [SPEAKER_00]: Quote, allies of President Biden have formed a super PAC called clear choice aimed at stopping any third party or independent candidates from gaining traction before the November election.

[00:15:27] [SPEAKER_00]: Right.

[00:15:28] [SPEAKER_00]: When Democrats use the term democracy, what they mean is the Democrat Party.

[00:15:35] [SPEAKER_00]: That's who they're protecting.

[00:15:37] [SPEAKER_00]: I mentioned two of three cases Democrats have lost.

[00:15:41] [SPEAKER_00]: Went over the first one here in North Carolina.

[00:15:43] [SPEAKER_00]: Federal judge ordering the state board of elections to certify the Justice for All party so it could appear on the ballot.

[00:15:50] [SPEAKER_00]: Well, specifically, Cornel West can appear on our ballot for president.

[00:15:55] [SPEAKER_00]: Also.

[00:15:57] [SPEAKER_00]: Yesterday.

[00:15:59] [SPEAKER_00]: The sorry, the Raleigh News and Observer McClatchy paper reporting that a Wake County judge ruled yesterday that Robert F.

[00:16:08] [SPEAKER_00]: Kennedy Jr.

[00:16:09] [SPEAKER_00]: Can remain on North Carolina's November ballot.

[00:16:14] [SPEAKER_00]: Rejecting a challenge from the state Democrat Party, which argued that Kennedy skirted the rules for running as an unaffiliated candidate by instead forming a new political party.

[00:16:28] [SPEAKER_00]: Judge Keith Gregory, a Democrat, ruled that Kennedy had, in fact, complied with state law in his attempt to get on the ballot.

[00:16:43] [SPEAKER_00]: Quote, it would be unconscionable for this court to attempt to tell a candidate who has decided to use one of the two methods that are available to him that the method he used is a subterfuge.

[00:16:57] [SPEAKER_00]: When, in fact, if it is or it isn't, he still complied with the requirements.

[00:17:04] [SPEAKER_00]: Right.

[00:17:05] [SPEAKER_00]: The state law allows two different paths to get on the ballot.

[00:17:09] [SPEAKER_00]: One, if you are just a candidate and one, if you are a political party.

[00:17:15] [SPEAKER_00]: And Kennedy and his people.

[00:17:20] [SPEAKER_00]: They took the path of the party.

[00:17:22] [SPEAKER_00]: Rather than the path of just listing him alone as a single candidate.

[00:17:28] [SPEAKER_00]: Now, to be sure, the state law has a lower barrier with the signatures needed for a party to get on the ballot versus a candidate, which is kind of weird to me.

[00:17:40] [SPEAKER_00]: But OK.

[00:17:42] [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know why that is, but they have two different sets of rules.

[00:17:46] [SPEAKER_00]: One, if you want to be a party.

[00:17:47] [SPEAKER_00]: One, if you want to be a single candidate.

[00:17:49] [SPEAKER_00]: And you've got to get more signatures as a single candidate.

[00:17:51] [SPEAKER_00]: I guess that's to, you know.

[00:17:54] [SPEAKER_00]: Tamp down on the number of, you know, ridiculous candidates that would just pay the filing fee to get on the ballot.

[00:18:01] [SPEAKER_00]: They're not with any kind of party whatsoever.

[00:18:03] [SPEAKER_00]: And they're just, you know, they're they're loons.

[00:18:06] [SPEAKER_00]: OK.

[00:18:06] [SPEAKER_00]: So maybe that's why they have a higher bar for just a candidate where the thought is, if you are part of a political party, then your lunacy must at least be shared by somebody else.

[00:18:18] [SPEAKER_00]: Right. You got to have somebody else that's willing to help you out, make a party or whatever.

[00:18:22] [SPEAKER_00]: So.

[00:18:24] [SPEAKER_00]: The standard or the bar is much lower to get on the ballot as a party.

[00:18:29] [SPEAKER_00]: And he followed those rules.

[00:18:31] [SPEAKER_00]: He checked all of the boxes, did it by the deadlines.

[00:18:35] [SPEAKER_00]: You may not like the rules.

[00:18:36] [SPEAKER_00]: You may not like the fact that he was successful, but you can't kick him off the ballot just because you don't like the rules that he followed successfully.

[00:18:46] [SPEAKER_00]: Speaking after the ruling, a lawyer for RFK Jr., the party, I should say, for his party, guy by the name of Oliver Hall, said, quote,

[00:18:57] [SPEAKER_00]: my advice to the Democratic Party is they ought to just compete for voters votes.

[00:19:02] [SPEAKER_00]: What they're doing now trying to suppress voter choice is a very bad look for a political party, especially one named the Democratic Party.

[00:19:13] [SPEAKER_00]: Boom.

[00:19:15] [SPEAKER_00]: Democrats sued the State Board of Elections last month after it voted four to one to certify Kennedy's We the People Party, which is a new party.

[00:19:23] [SPEAKER_00]: The WTP or the what?

[00:19:26] [SPEAKER_00]: What one cannot do.

[00:19:29] [SPEAKER_00]: A lawyer for the Democrat Party says what what one cannot do is to try to take a shortcut when you're really an independent candidate and create a political party solely for the purpose of putting that candidate on the ballot.

[00:19:45] [SPEAKER_00]: Actually, I think you can.

[00:19:48] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[00:19:49] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[00:19:49] [SPEAKER_00]: Pretty sure you can do that.

[00:19:50] [SPEAKER_00]: You just have to go through the hoops.

[00:19:52] [SPEAKER_00]: Right.

[00:19:53] [SPEAKER_00]: You got to jump through the hoops to create the party.

[00:19:55] [SPEAKER_00]: And if you jump through the hoops correctly, then you get to make a party and then you get to put your candidate on the ballot.

[00:20:01] [SPEAKER_00]: See, because the law requires like 80,000 signatures for an unaffiliated candidate.

[00:20:08] [SPEAKER_00]: But a party will you only need 14,000?

[00:20:12] [SPEAKER_00]: And that's a big difference.

[00:20:14] [SPEAKER_00]: Attorneys for the State Board of Elections and the We the People Party argued that state law does not prohibit the formation of new political parties for the purpose of nominating a certain candidate.

[00:20:26] [SPEAKER_00]: But regardless, the We the People Party is running candidates other than Kennedy.

[00:20:33] [SPEAKER_00]: So the Democrats sued under this idea that, well, you're just doing this because it's one candidate.

[00:20:39] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, but they've got other candidates, too.

[00:20:42] [SPEAKER_00]: Two, the attorney for the party says they are expressly suing a rival political party because it formed itself as a political party for exercising its fundamental First Amendment right.

[00:20:56] [SPEAKER_00]: From the Carolina Journal.

[00:20:59] [SPEAKER_00]: Oliver Hall, the attorney for the party, said what plaintiffs have a quarrel with is the law itself.

[00:21:06] [SPEAKER_00]: He says there is no basis in fact or law for an injunction blocking the ballot access.

[00:21:12] [SPEAKER_00]: North Carolina law does not allow a new political party for the sole purpose of electing a single candidate.

[00:21:19] [SPEAKER_00]: That was the argument from the Democrat Party lawyer.

[00:21:23] [SPEAKER_00]: Rather than deny the We the People's bid, the state elections board punted to the court, said the lawyer for the Democrats.

[00:21:31] [SPEAKER_00]: In addition to nominating Kennedy as its presidential candidate, though, the We the People Party has selected Jeff Scott to serve as a candidate in state Senate District 40, as well as Mark Ortiz to serve as a candidate for Rowan County commissioner.

[00:21:44] [SPEAKER_00]: And both were there to watch the hearing in Raleigh.

[00:21:49] [SPEAKER_00]: Democrats cited comments by the board of election chairman, a guy by the name of Alan Hirsch.

[00:21:56] [SPEAKER_00]: Back at the July 16th meeting.

[00:21:59] [SPEAKER_00]: Where he voted to recognize the We the People Party, along with the Republicans on the body was a four to one vote.

[00:22:07] [SPEAKER_00]: There are three Democrats, two Republicans.

[00:22:10] [SPEAKER_00]: Hirsch, the board chair.

[00:22:12] [SPEAKER_00]: said that the We the People Party was a subterfuge, a candidate campaign masquerading as a political party.

[00:22:19] [SPEAKER_00]: But he voted reluctantly in favor of recognition because, quote, it is such a close call that ultimately a court would have to decide whether the law permits that maneuver or not.

[00:22:31] [SPEAKER_00]: So a judge says, yes, it does permit that maneuver.

[00:22:35] [SPEAKER_00]: The We the People Party called the Democrats lawsuit frivolous.

[00:22:41] [SPEAKER_00]: They say that there's no accusation that we didn't fail or that we failed to meet any of the law's requirements.

[00:22:48] [SPEAKER_00]: We did.

[00:22:50] [SPEAKER_00]: You're not making an argument that the board of elections didn't have the authority to certify the party because they did.

[00:22:56] [SPEAKER_00]: You can't truthfully assert that the allegations that you're making here are true because the parties concede that they did get enough signatures.

[00:23:08] [SPEAKER_00]: They did follow the law under all of the circumstances.

[00:23:13] [SPEAKER_00]: They did everything they needed to do, yet they still allege that the certification of RFK Jr.'s party was somehow a violation of the law, but they didn't cite any law that they actually violated.

[00:23:28] [SPEAKER_00]: So there you go.

[00:23:29] [SPEAKER_00]: There were the two victories or I should say, well, victories for democracy and losses for the Democrat Party.

[00:23:35] [SPEAKER_00]: But they did win one up in New York.

[00:23:38] [SPEAKER_00]: A judge ruled that RFK Jr. cannot appear on New York's ballot, saying that he falsely claimed a New York residence on the nominating petitions.

[00:23:55] [SPEAKER_00]: Despite the fact that he lives in California, allegedly, maybe we're not sure.

[00:24:01] [SPEAKER_00]: The scion of the famed Democratic political dynasty vowed to appeal.

[00:24:07] [SPEAKER_00]: This is a report at the Associated Press, by the way.

[00:24:11] [SPEAKER_00]: Dismissing the ruling, he dismissed the ruling as partisan.

[00:24:14] [SPEAKER_00]: If the judge's decision is upheld, it not only keeps Kennedy off the ballot in New York, but it could also lead to challenges in other states where he used an address in New York City suburbs to gather signatures.

[00:24:26] [SPEAKER_00]: Quote.

[00:24:28] [SPEAKER_00]: The Democrats are.

[00:24:29] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm just kidding.

[00:24:30] [SPEAKER_00]: I won't do that.

[00:24:31] [SPEAKER_00]: OK, the Democrats are showing contempt for democracy, Kennedy said in a statement, noting the ruling judge is a Democrat.

[00:24:39] [SPEAKER_00]: They aren't confident they can win at the ballot box.

[00:24:42] [SPEAKER_00]: So they are trying to stop voters from having a choice.

[00:24:45] [SPEAKER_00]: We will appeal and we will win.

[00:24:48] [SPEAKER_00]: The judge in this case, her name is Christina Ryba.

[00:24:54] [SPEAKER_00]: And she wrote a 34 page decision where she said that the rented bedroom that Kennedy claimed as his residence in New York.

[00:25:05] [SPEAKER_00]: was not a bona fide and legitimate residence, but merely a sham address that he assumed for the purpose of maintaining his voter registration and furthering his political candidacy.

[00:25:20] [SPEAKER_00]: Right.

[00:25:20] [SPEAKER_00]: If you want to carpet bag in New York, you better buy a big old house in Chappaquiddick.

[00:25:27] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm sorry.

[00:25:28] [SPEAKER_00]: No, that's not.

[00:25:28] [SPEAKER_00]: Sorry.

[00:25:29] [SPEAKER_00]: That's not the right place.

[00:25:30] [SPEAKER_00]: Not Chappaquiddick.

[00:25:31] [SPEAKER_00]: Sorry.

[00:25:32] [SPEAKER_00]: That's too soon.

[00:25:34] [SPEAKER_00]: Now, where does Hillary live?

[00:25:35] [SPEAKER_00]: Wherever.

[00:25:37] [SPEAKER_00]: So he did because he has a house in California.

[00:25:40] [SPEAKER_00]: RFK Jr.

[00:25:40] [SPEAKER_00]: does.

[00:25:41] [SPEAKER_00]: He's got a big old house in California.

[00:25:44] [SPEAKER_00]: But I thought this was really interesting because it reminded me of two different counterfactuals.

[00:25:52] [SPEAKER_00]: One was right here in Mecklenburg County.

[00:25:55] [SPEAKER_00]: Years and years ago, where a bunch of homeless people were being taken to vote.

[00:26:02] [SPEAKER_00]: And they had claimed their address as the shelter, like the men's shelter, I believe.

[00:26:11] [SPEAKER_00]: And there's actually a part of the forum where you're just supposed to, like, write down, like, as Bill James, the county commissioner at the time, commented, you know, if you're living under a bridge and you're supposed to draw a little map or something and identify what bridge and where you're where you are residing.

[00:26:27] [SPEAKER_00]: And then you'd be allowed to vote.

[00:26:29] [SPEAKER_00]: Now, the other one that I think is really comparable here.

[00:26:34] [SPEAKER_00]: College students.

[00:26:36] [SPEAKER_00]: College students.

[00:26:37] [SPEAKER_00]: Right.

[00:26:38] [SPEAKER_00]: They're allowed to vote where they go to school.

[00:26:42] [SPEAKER_00]: In fact, it swung a couple of races in Buncombe County for a county commissioner race.

[00:26:50] [SPEAKER_00]: It was like 20, 30 votes or something.

[00:26:53] [SPEAKER_00]: And they had harvested a bunch out of the UNC Asheville campus where the kids were using their dorm rooms as their addresses.

[00:27:02] [SPEAKER_00]: And that's apparently allowed in North Carolina, even though your residence, your legal residence, is the place to which you intend to return.

[00:27:11] [SPEAKER_00]: Given the size and appearance of the spare bedroom as shown in the photographs, it basically looked like a dorm room.

[00:27:19] [SPEAKER_00]: Oh, no.

[00:27:21] [SPEAKER_00]: The court finds Kennedy's testimony that he may return to that bedroom to reside with his wife, family members, multiple pets, and all of his personal belongings to be highly improbable, if not preposterous.

[00:27:35] [SPEAKER_00]: Here's the thing.

[00:27:36] [SPEAKER_00]: If you're claiming a rented bedroom in a friend's house as your legal residence for purposes of registering to vote and then to vote,

[00:27:45] [SPEAKER_00]: and you have a whole house in California and you got wife and kids and he's got falcons there and stuff,

[00:27:52] [SPEAKER_00]: I don't believe that you're intending to actually return to that bedroom.

[00:27:55] [SPEAKER_00]: I don't believe that that's your residence.

[00:27:58] [SPEAKER_00]: Much like I don't believe that your dorm room should be your residence either.

[00:28:01] [SPEAKER_00]: However, Ryba, the judge, said evidence submitted in trial showed Kennedy had a longstanding pattern of borrowing addresses from friends and relatives

[00:28:10] [SPEAKER_00]: so he could maintain his voter registration in New York State while actually living in California where he has a home with his wife.

[00:28:17] [SPEAKER_00]: You know who his wife is?

[00:28:18] [SPEAKER_00]: Cheryl Hines.

[00:28:20] [SPEAKER_00]: H-I-N-E-S.

[00:28:22] [SPEAKER_00]: Not the ketchup family.

[00:28:24] [SPEAKER_00]: Cheryl Hines.

[00:28:25] [SPEAKER_00]: She played the wife of Larry David in Curb Your Enthusiasm.

[00:28:29] [SPEAKER_00]: That's RFK Jr.'s wife.

[00:28:31] [SPEAKER_00]: Did you know that?

[00:28:32] [SPEAKER_00]: Anyway, using a friend's address for political and voting purposes while barely stepping foot on the premises

[00:28:37] [SPEAKER_00]: does not equate to residency under the election law.

[00:28:41] [SPEAKER_00]: To hold otherwise would establish a dangerous precedent and open the door to the fraud and political mischief

[00:28:47] [SPEAKER_00]: that the election law residency rules were designed to prevent.

[00:28:51] [SPEAKER_00]: Whoa, whoa, whoa.

[00:28:52] [SPEAKER_00]: Residency rules were designed to prevent fraud?

[00:28:56] [SPEAKER_00]: Man, we should probably find out for sure if people live where they say they live then.

[00:29:02] [SPEAKER_00]: If only there were some sort of a document with like a photograph on it and a legal address attached to it that we could use that could help to...

[00:29:09] [SPEAKER_00]: All right, that'll do it for this episode.

[00:29:11] [SPEAKER_00]: Thank you so much for listening.

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[00:29:17] [SPEAKER_00]: So if you'd like, please support them too and tell them you heard it here.

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[00:29:26] [SPEAKER_00]: Again, thank you so much for listening and don't break anything while I'm gone.