Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is facing legal challenges in Nevada over his petition to run as an independent candidate, with his campaign threatening legal action after concerns were raised about the validity of the signatures he gathered. The issue arose when it was discovered that the signatures on his petition may be invalid due to the absence of a vice presidential candidate.
While the Kennedy campaign argues that the Democratic Party created a new rule to disqualify his Nevada signatures, it has been noted that Nevada has required a vice presidential candidate to be named in an independent candidate's petition since 1993.
"Despite meeting all the signature requirements in Nevada, the DNC and their allies are imposing a new, baseless requirement on the petition," stated Kennedy's ballot access attorney, Paul Rossi. "There is no stipulation in the Nevada statute mandating the inclusion of a VP on the petition, and the petition itself does not even provide a space for a vice presidential candidate."
"This blatant manipulation by the Nevada Secretary of State needs to be stopped by a federal court," Rossi added. "The Kennedy campaign is prepared to investigate the Secretary of State's actions to uncover the origin of this deceptive tactic, whether it came from the White House or the DNC."
Rossi also linked to an email exchange on Nov. 14 between the campaign and the secretary of state's office in which the office erroneously said the petition did not require a named running mate.
"Does the vice presidential candidate have to be listed on the petition forms," a Kennedy ballot access manager asked in the email. "No," the office staffer replied, referring the campaign to the petition format on page 5 of the state's petition guide. Rossi also linked to Jan. 9 correspondence from the secretary of state's office approving Kennedy's petition.
This differs from Nevada statutes, which say that in an independent candidate's petition of candidacy, "the person must also designate a nominee for Vice President."
Documents requested from the Nevada office revealed that Kennedy only named himself, without a running mate, on his candidate petition, in violation of the rules, potentially making the signatures collected in the state void.
The secretary of state's office acknowledged its staff had misinformed Kennedy.
"Earlier today it was brought to the attention of our office that a Secretary of State employee had provided inaccurate guidance to an independent presidential campaign. This was an error, and will be handled appropriately. In no way was the initial error or subsequent statutory guidance made with intent to benefit or harm any political party or candidate for office," the office said in a statement to CBS News.
Despite the error, the office stated that it was Kennedy's campaign responsibility to adhere to the statute.
"If a government agency provides an unclear or incorrect response to a question from a member of the public, Nevada courts have made it clear that the agency cannot act on the employee's statements if doing so would violate the law," the office explained.
Currently, Kennedy is only on the ballot in Utah, but his campaign claims to have gathered enough signatures to qualify for the ballot in several other states. Kennedy is set to announce his running mate on Tuesday in Oakland.
