Administrative Law Judge Ernest Bongiovanni is expected to decide tomorrow whether Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. will remain on the New Jersey ballot as an independent candidate for the presidency.
After a two and a half hour hearing on Monday, Bongiovanni must determine whether the state’s Sore Loser Law, which prevents candidates from running as independents after they unsuccessfully sought a major party nomination for the same office.
Scott Salmon, a Democratic election lawyer who wants Kennedy tossed from the ballot, showed Bongiovanni videos of Kennedy announcing his challenge to Joe Biden in the Democratic primary – and Kennedy speaking at the opening of his Elizabeth, New Jersey campaign headquarters last year – along with Federal Election Commission reports that he raised and spent money in New Jersey.
But Kennedy’s attorney, Donald Burke, argued that Kennedy never actually filed to run in the New Jersey presidential primary – or any other state – and that the Sore Loser Law doesn’t apply.
Bongiovanni gave both sides until noon tomorrow to submit a post-hearing brief. The deadline for the judge to send his findings to Secretary of State Tahesha Way is tomorrow.
A separate election challenge against independent presidential candidate Shiva Ayyadurai is also expected to be decided tomorrow, with Administrative Law Judge William Cooper saying he hopes to release a decision by noon.
The New Jersey Democratic State Committee (NJDSC) filed a challenge against Ayyadurai for not being a natural-born citizen of the United States, which is a constitutional requirement to be president; Ayyadurai is a naturalized citizen, having been born in India and immigrating to the U.S. as a child.
Ayyadurai put forward several arguments during the half-hour hearing, including that states cannot restrict federal candidates from the ballot and that the matter should be decided by voters, not by the courts; he also issued repeated broadsides against Raj Parikh, the attorney for the NJDSC, and implied that Cooper would not be impartial in the matter because he had been appointed by Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy.
This story was updated at 5:17 p.m. with information about the challenge to Ayyadurai’s candidacy.