Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. has touted New Jersey as one of the states where he has qualified to be on the November general election ballot, but a quirk in New Jersey’s election law makes that claim technically false.
Kennedy filed petitions with 2,648 signatures In May, significantly more than the 800 he needed to get on the November general election ballot.
But New Jersey doesn’t have a mechanism for election officials to review petitions submitted early—in Kennedy’s case, before the July 29 filing deadline for independent electors for president and vice president. Candidates often file early and then add signatures in subsequent filings.
The New Jersey Division of Elections won’t decide whether to accept or reject petitions before July 29. The deadline to correct technical deficiencies in the petition – but not add more signatures – is August 1; challenges to the validity of petitions is August 2, and Secretary of State Tahesha Way has until August 7 to make a final determination to a challenge after it was heard by an administrative law judge.
Way is statutorily obligated to transmit a list of all general election candidates that filed in Trenton to individual county clerks by August 9; that’s technically when Kennedy can claim to have legally qualified for the New Jersey ballot.
Kennedy had included New Jersey on his list of qualified states to participate in the first presidential debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump on June 27. The debate sponsor, CNN, required candidates to appear on enough ballots to reach the 270 electoral vote threshold and be at 15% in at least four national polls.