With less than two weeks from the first presidential debate, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his campaign are hustling to get on as many state ballots as possible to be eligible for the debate on CNN, which requires a candidate to be able to win at least 270 electoral votes.
The independent presidential candidate announced Friday that he’s qualified for the ballot in 19 states, which could earn him 278 votes, but at least 10 of those states have yet to certify that his submissions are valid.
Because Kennedy is running as an independent, he must go through the arduous process of collecting millions of signatures, which then have to be certified by the states.
He has faced several hiccups in his signature collection efforts, with the most pressing one coming from his efforts in Nevada.
Kennedy filed a lawsuit against Nevada after learning that the campaign’s collection of over 15,000 signatures in the state would be void because the petition it circulated did not list a vice presidential pick, which is required by state law to be allowed on the ballot. A staffer in the Nevada office had wrongfully informed Kennedy that he did not need to list a running mate, however, a spokesperson for the office said the Kennedy campaign had been sent clear guidelines for ballot access in a memo that same month.
Just in case Kennedy loses his lawsuit, his campaign is passing out an amended petition listing his running mate, Nicole Shanahan.
The Kennedy campaign has until July 5 to collect 10,000 signatures to be considered to be added to the ballot.
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In addition to Nevada, Kennedy is facing challenges in New York for his ballot access. A spokesperson for a super PAC affiliated with President Joe Biden said Kennedy lied about his residency in the state and listed an address at which he does not live on the petition.
However, this week, Kennedy found victory by gaining access to Florida’s ballot through the Reform Party.
