A Democratic group contends that a new left-wing political party seeking recognition in North Carolina is a front intended to harm Joe Biden’s reelection campaign, and it’s asking the State Board of Elections to investigate.

Clear Choice Action, a group targeting third-party presidential campaigns, accused the Justice For All Party, which hopes to place Cornel West on the presidential ballot in North Carolina, of misleading signers of its petition for party recognition.

In a letter sent to the state board on Thursday, Clear Choice says it found deficiencies in thousands of signatures upon reviewing JFA’s petition sheets, which, if disqualified, could put the party below the legal threshold to be certified.

“When a full independent review of JFA’s petitions is completed by the State Board of Elections … we are confident they will fall short of the valid signature threshold, based on our detailed, line-by-line analysis,” Pete Kavanaugh, Clear Choice Action’s founder and a former Biden aide, said in a statement.

In a statement to The News & Observer, Italo Medelius, North Carolina co-chair of JFA, said Clear Choice’s complaint was “full of falsehoods and misinformation.”

“By trying to keep us off the ballot, through manufactured falsehood, the party is justifying our very existence,” Medelius said. “The two parties are out of control, and they will not stop until all parties, except the two sovereigns, are barred from the ballot.”

JFA appears to have met the signature requirement to be certified as a new party in North Carolina, but the state board, which has a 3-2 Democratic majority, has yet to vote on the group’s petition.

Clear Choice has also also targeted Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s third-party campaign in North Carolina, sending a similar complaint to the state board.

The North Carolina Democratic Party has also submitted challenges of Kennedy’s and West’s parties to the state board.

At a rally on Friday, speakers from a variety of third parties denounced efforts to keep West and Kennedy’s parties off the ballot.

“There are groups trying to pressure and coerce the state board not to certify us — these are the same groups that will tell you in order to save democracy, they will eviscerate democracy,” said Ryan Rabah, North Carolina vice chair for Kennedy’s “We The People” party. “… We have followed all the rules, we have followed all the statutes, and we deserve to be certified immediately.”

Alleged GOP ties and signature irregularities

In its 29-page letter to the state board, Clear Choice lays out a variety of allegations about JFA’s petition campaign.

It references reporting from NBC News which found that several signature-gatherers working for JFA’s petition campaign had ties to a Republican consulting firm.

One Republican activist collecting signatures for West told attendees at a Trump rally in North Carolina that having West on the ballot “helps take away votes from Joe Biden,” NBC reported.

“JFA’s entire petitioning effort is a sham driven by Republican-party affiliated voters and groups to dilute support for President Biden and other Democrats,” attorneys for Clear Choice wrote in the letter.

Medelius denied this claim, saying that JFA is chaired by unaffiliated union members and has no registered Republicans or Democrats in its executive committee.

“How does this claim, notwithstanding its blatant untruthfulness, have any relevance to the complaint at hand?” he said. “It doesn’t, it’s a piece of political warfare through the organs of government.”

Clear Choice also points to alleged improprieties in JFA’s petition sheets. It says it conducted a thorough review of the sheets after receiving them in a public records request.

These deficiencies include illegible signatures, incorrect addresses and similar handwriting across multiple signatures, Clear Choice claims.

The News & Observer reported earlier this month that Clear Choice engaged in a text campaign to question supporters of West’s and Kennedy’s parties about their decisions to sign the petition for ballot access.

Citing responses to those texts, Clear Choice says 431 signers of JFA’s petition told them they “wish to withdraw signatures, claim they did not sign, or we misled by circulators.”

The State Board of Elections has not indicated when it will vote on Kennedy’s or West’s petitions for party recognition.

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