RFK Jr. Gets on One Ballot, Has 50 to Go

Utah is first to allow him on
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 4, 2024 1:10 AM CST
RFK Jr. Gets on the Ballot in One State
Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speaks during a campaign event, Nov. 14, 2023, in Columbia, SC.   (AP Photo/Meg Kinnard)

The ballot of at least one state will feature the name of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Utah became the first state to grant the independent presidential candidate ballot access, announcing Wednesday that he met the 1,000-signature requirement before the March deadline, the Hill reports. Kennedy's campaign formally filed with Utah's elections office Wednesday, CNN reports. Republicans and Democrats alike are concerned about how the anti-vaccine activist's presidential campaign could affect their own nominees' chances.

CNN says it will be an uphill battle for Kennedy to get on the ballots in all 50 states plus Washington DC, which is his goal, and on Wednesday he was also lamenting the barriers he faces as an independent candidate in some states, like large signature requirements in states including California, New York, and Texas, which he called "deliberately burdensome" in what he painted as an attempt to keep independents off the ballot. Other states have their own laborious requirements too, he said: "It's negotiating this labyrinth of these arcane rules that we now have in every state that are all designed to suppress dissent, to make sure that there are no options for Americans outside of the major political parties."

Meanwhile, RFK Jr. was also speaking out about the ballots in Colorado and Maine, on which Donald Trump's name may not appear: "People ought to be able to vote for who they wanna vote for," he said at his press conference Wednesday. (More Robert F. Kennedy Jr. stories.)

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