The DNC is reportedly assembling a team of attorneys to track the ballot access requests of third-party candidates in an effort to allay party concerns that these individuals may damage President Joe Biden’s reelection prospects, according to a Wednesday story in the New York Times.
The New York Times reports that attorneys Robert Lenhard and Dana Remus would head up the new group’s efforts to combat what the party sees as an obstacle to former President Trump’s prospects of reelection in November. The party sees monitoring the ballot access victories of independent Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Cornel West, the Green Party, and No Labels as of primary importance.
The source states that the DNC’s legal division is coordinating field teams, analytics, research, and local lawyers nationwide to track who is able to cast ballots.
To ensure that “to the degree that you are looking for status as a new party, you are actually a real party — a large group of folks who believe what you believe, not just a single candidate wishing to circumvent the rules,” as Lenhard put it to the NY Times, candidates will have their efforts monitored.
States including Hawaii, California, Mississippi, North Carolina, Delaware, and Texas were among those that would nominate the Independent for president after the formation of the “We the People” party by Kennedy’s followers. The Independent’s campaign and an affiliated superPAC, American Values 2024, have amassed enough signatures to get access to the ballot in New Hampshire, Arizona, Nevada, and Georgia. He has also successfully expanded his ballot access in Utah.
According to the NYT, Lenhard elaborated by saying that states should implement regulations that restrict voting to “guarantee that the individuals who are on the ballot have real bases of support, and it’s not merely a vanity project.”
The New York Times reports that West has successfully obtained ballot access in four states: Utah, South Carolina, Alaska, and Oregon.
According to Edwin DeJesus, who is in charge of the West’s ballot access effort, “I am not aware of the D.N.C. becoming hostile toward us yet.” “As election day draws near, they will likely reveal the spoiler story.”
Twenty states and the District of Columbia have the Green Party on their ballots, according to the New York Times. The Green Party’s 2012 and 2016 candidates, Jill Stein and Sebastian Kurz, are both vying for the nomination.
The centrist group No Labels has gained access to the ballot in eighteen states in preparation for its 2024 “Unity Ticket” campaign.
“Our aim as a legal group is to make sure all the candidates are following the regulations and to try to get them in trouble when they’re not,” Lenhard told the New York Times.
I fail to see how this is an exercise in democracy if this is the strategy the Democrats intend to employ—to shackle third-party campaigns with fabricated legalese or to alter regulations in the middle of a campaign out of fear of voters defecting to candidates who more accurately reflect their beliefs and objectives. Apparently, Democrats are willing to sacrifice democracy for its survival, according to Stein’s spokesman, who talked with the Daily Caller News Foundation.
In addition, the DNC has just assembled its first-ever squad to take on third-party candidates in 2024. This team will employ a combative communications strategy, conduct opposition research, and engage in legal battles. After filing a complaint against American Values 2024, which was collecting ballot access signatures for the Independent, the party began to target Kennedy’s campaign.
