North Carolina Board Of Elections Votes To Excludes Biden's Challengers From 2024 Democratic Primary Ballot

The board members cited their reluctance to exercise their discretionary authority to add candidates, labeling these as "party issues."

This decision aligns with the North Carolina Democratic Party's preference for Biden as the sole candidate. This move virtually guarantees Biden's victory in the state's primary, securing him the majority of the state's delegates who will vote at the national convention to nominate a candidate for the general election.

In December, the board had unanimously approved the list of candidates for the ballot based on the names submitted by the parties. The Democratic Party had only submitted Biden's name, while the Republicans listed several candidates, including former President Donald Trump, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, and former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley. The Libertarian Party also submitted a list of candidates.

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The decision to only include Biden on the ballot was challenged by other Democratic candidates, including Minnesota Congressman Dean Phillips and Marianne Williamson, a self-proclaimed spiritual thought leader and author who also ran for president in 2020. Ahead of the board's Tuesday meeting, both candidates cited a state law that allows the board to include a presidential primary candidate that has been "generally advocated and recognized in the news media throughout the United States or in North Carolina," unless the candidate opts out.

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Alan Hirsch, the Democratic chairman of the board of elections, revealed on Tuesday that the board had received petitions to add three names to the Democratic primary, including Williamson, Phillips, and Cenk Uygur. Another candidate had also filed a petition, but it was unclear for which primary. The board had also received a petition from Jill Stein to be added to the Green Party ballot, despite the Green Party's decision not to hold a primary.

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Hirsch reiterated that while the board had the discretionary authority to add names, he viewed these as "party issues." He emphasized that these are presidential preference primaries, whose purpose is to elect delegates to go to the national conventions.

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Pat Gannon, a spokesman for the board, explained that there's no formal petitioning process to be added to the presidential list submitted by the parties. However, a state law allows candidates to file a petition signed by 10,000 registered party members for inclusion on the primary ballot. The candidates discussed by the board took no formal action and all wrote emails or letters requesting to be added, Gannon said.

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Kevin Lewis, a Republican board member, acknowledged that some of the candidates, including the Green Party candidate, are recognized in the news media but insisted that "these are party parameters and the party should have the right, I think, to nominate candidates of (its) choosing."

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Tommy Mattocks, a Democratic Party spokesman, defended the decision to only include Biden and the candidate challenges in late December. He stated that to get on the ballot, candidates needed to have donors in the state and be actively campaigning in the state. He added that neither Williamson nor Phillips had been in the state this cycle, and this was the standard used in all previous cycles.

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Following the board's decision, Sydney Goldstein, Williamson's spokesperson, expressed disappointment that the board "abdicated their authority to protect North Carolina voters from the North Carolina Democratic State Party attempts to circumvent democracy." She argued that it was not the board's job to protect incumbents but to oversee elections in a non-partisan manner. She added that Williamson had received extensive national news media coverage, was a member of the Democratic Party, and met all the requirements for the Office of President as set forth in the United States Constitution.

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All five members voted in favor of the motion to maintain the list of Democratic, Republican, and Libertarian candidates voted on initially in December.

In contrast, the board's decision in 2020 was to allow two other Republican candidates to be added to the presidential primary ballot list, which until then only featured then-President Trump's name.

While the board has finalized the parties' primary candidates this year, things could still change, with Trump's candidacy being challenged in state courts. Also pending is whether the Green Party and the No Labels Party, a new centrist political party backed by former Republican Governor Pat McCrory, will put forth a presidential candidate — just not through the primary process.

The primary election is scheduled for March 5.