North Carolina Election Commission faces Republican-led federal investigation into party voting access

(The Center Square) – The actions of the North Carolina State Board of Elections are being investigated by the U.S. House Judiciary Committee, chaired by Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio).

This happened after the body denied three political parties access to the ballot, even though each of them had exceeded the number of signatures required for eligibility.

In a letter from the House Judiciary and Administration Committees, which are also investigating the decision, lawmakers said they were seeking additional “documents and information” on the decision.

“The House Administration Committee and the Judiciary Committee are concerned that the NCSBE’s decision was politically motivated and may have been intended to influence the 2024 presidential election by limiting the candidates for whom voters may vote,” wrote Jordan and Republican Rep. Bryan Steil of Wisconsin.

Steil is chairman of the House Administration Committee.

The three parties are supporting Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Cornel West and Randall Terry in the 2024 presidential election.

According to state election board records, each party cast more than the 13,865 votes needed to qualify.

Although they were initially denied access to the ballots last week, the committee said before the federal investigation began that it would review the matter again in July.

The federal committees’ letter says the decision was based on “political motives” of board members and points out that all three Democrats on the board voted against the petitions.

“For example,” the letter states, “when rejecting a petition, Democratic members voted to block the petition simply because the party leader’s address on the petition forms was not current.”

Both Republicans on the board voted to accept the motion.

The federal committees were not the first to react negatively to the panel’s decision, which sparked widespread opposition.

The Libertarian Party of North Carolina issued a statement supporting the petitions of the other three losing parties and calling the decision “election interference.”

“The Libertarian Party of North Carolina (@LPNC) is deeply disappointed, though hardly surprised, by yesterday’s decision by the North Carolina State Board of Elections (@NCSBE) to limit the voting options of the people of North Carolina by excluding the We the People Party, the Constitution Party, and the Justice for All Party from the North Carolina ballot,” it said in posted on X“We strongly oppose this partisan and anti-American decision that mocks the concept of democracy and destroys any semblance of representative government.”

If the decision is not reversed soon, candidates will miss the November voting deadline.

For this reason, the federal committees asked the board to respond to their request by Monday so they can “exercise oversight” and avoid any undue “influence” or “influence” the board may attempt to exert on the North Carolina election.