- Last week, US District Judge Terrence Boyle ordered NCSBE to certify the party and to add its candidates to the state’s November ballot.
- Recognition of Justice for All means voters now have nine choices of party affiliation when registering to vote or updating an existing registration.
At its meeting Tuesday, the North Carolina State Election Board (NCSBE) voted unanimously to recognize the Justice for All Party (JFA).
Democratic board member Siobhan Millen made the motion.
“I think our hand is forced in a way, but because of the federal court, so I move that the state board recognize and certify the Justice for All Party as a political party under the laws of North Carolina and to include on the general election ballot the candidates who were certified by the party to the state board on July 1, 2024, and who are qualified for the office they seek,” she said.
Last week, US District Judge Terrence Boyle ordered NCSBE to certify the party and to add its candidates to the state’s November ballot. That means voters would have the chance to choose left-of-center activist and academic Cornel West in the race for president.
The elections board denied JFA ballot access last month in a party-line 3-2 vote. The board’s Democratic majority rejected party certification. Republican board members supported JFA’s bid.
Boyle ruled that plaintiffs representing JFA are likely to win their argument that the elections board violated the First Amendment by denying the party ballot access.
He issued an injunction favoring three voters suing on behalf of JFA. He also approved a motion from West and JFA’s party leader to intervene in the case.
The party had previously sent their certified nominees to the state board on July 1st. Those nominees were West, Melina Abdullah for vice president, and Frankie Lee Gist for mayor of Winston Salem.
Republican Board member Stacy “Four” Eggers IV asked if Gist ran in a previous primary on a different ticket.
Adam Steele, Associate General Counsel for NCSBE, replied that was correct as Gist ran in the Democratic Primary for the same seat, so he would not be eligible to be named as a candidate for the mayoral race in Winston-Salem.
Eggers asked if the board needed to set a deadline for the JFA to submit their candidate nominations or if West and Abdullah were the only qualified candidates.
Steele said it would be the latter.
“One thing about how to compare the Constitution Party and the We the People Party,” he said. “So the We the People Party didn’t get any extra time to certify candidates because they had at their convention certified their candidates and sent those to the board before being certified, and the Constitution Party’s convention was held open, and they had actually indicated they had some candidates who they had picked, but they hadn’t supplied their names for various reasons, so that’s why they received extra time, but the normal practice is that they’ve already certified their candidates and so those are the only two that would be eligible.”
“So just for clarity then, Mr. Gist, by statute, since he ran in a party primary and was unsuccessful, is ineligible to run with a different party in the general election, so it would just be the other two and not that individual, correct?” Eggers asked. Steele replied that was correct.
Recognition of Justice for All means voters now have nine choices of party affiliation when registering to vote or updating an existing registration. Voters may register with the Constitution, Democratic, Green, Justice for All, Libertarian, No Labels, Republican, or We the People parties, or they can register as unaffiliated.
This recognition also means that voters currently registered with a different political party or as unaffiliated may switch their affiliation to the Justice for All Party if they wish.
NCSBE has updated voter registration applications to include the new political party option. If a voter who wants to register with the new party received an older version of the voter registration application, they may register for Justice for All by checking the “Other” box and writing “Justice for All” on the line in the “Political Party Affiliation” section.