Independent presidential candidate Cornel West will be on the ballot in North Carolina, a federal judge ruled Monday, siding with a group of West supporters who challenged the state election board’s decision to keep West’s party off the ballot.
The Justice for All (JFA) Party was denied ballot access in North Carolina at a state elections board meeting last month, with the board concluding that the party tricked voters into signing its ballot access petition.
Judge Terrence Boyle governed Monday that the council’s reasoning was flawed, concluding that it did not have adequate justification for denying access to the Justice for All Party. He issued a preliminary injunction in the case, allowing West to vote as the case progresses.
Boyle said the board did not use the “narrow tailoring” required to determine whether the party’s petition signatures were invalid, instead discarding them completely based on its own “flawed” internal analysis.
“Close tailoring requires a scalpel; the Council used a blunt instrument,” he wrote. “The Board effectively disenfranchised more than 17,000 North Carolina voters who signed petitions to certify the JFA as a new political party based on flawed and highly suspect reasons.”
Access to JFA was first challenged by Clear Choice Action, a Democratic-aligned group that has filed challenges to third-party voting access across the country. The lawsuit filed by West supporters alleges that Democratic board members overly relied on misleading evidence provided by the group to reject their request.
North Carolina JFA Co-President Italo Medelius celebrated the decision on Tuesday.
“This is a monumental day for our party and for all supporters of diverse political representation,” he said in a statement. “The court’s decision to allow our candidates on the ballot is not only a victory for the JFA, but a victory for every North Carolinian who believes in the power of choice and the strength of democracy.”
The Hill has reached out to the North Carolina State Board of Elections for comment.
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