RFK Jr. commemorates Utah’s postponed ‘unconstitutional’ ballot deadline

Utah has delayed its ballot access deadline to appease 2024 candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who had a pending lawsuit against the state.

Previously, the deadline was Jan. 8, which is the earliest deadline in the nation, but it has since been moved back to March 5. The next earliest deadline is Texas, where independent candidates have until May 13 to file.

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Kennedy was previously a Democratic candidate for 2024 but switched to be an independent in October. Since then, his team has been at work collecting the necessary signatures so his name will appear on the ballot of each state. The presidential candidate would go on to file a lawsuit against Utah, claiming “the current deadline is the earliest deadline ever sought to be imposed on independent presidential candidates in the modern era. No federal court has ever upheld a January deadline [for independent presidential candidates].”

“This decision has been made in the spirit of affording every reasonable opportunity for unaffiliated presidential candidates to participate in our general election,” Utah Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson said in a press release. “Key legislators are aware of the potential problems with the current statute. I am confident these issues will be addressed in the upcoming legislative session.”

“In a democracy, the people are supposed to decide with their votes who gets into office,” Kennedy said in a press release. “Not state officials who prevent popular candidates from getting on the ballot.”

Kennedy’s legal counsel Paul Rossi also issued a statement, saying he is “pleased Lt. Governor Henderson had the courage to correct the wrong committed by the state legislature in their intentional assault on the constitutional right of Utah voters to cast their vote for Mr. Kennedy in 2024.”

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Last month, Kennedy made a campaign stop in Salt Lake City, Utah, typically a red state. Utah has 574,075 registered unaffiliated voters, which has steadily increased year over year. Over 100,000 of them are reportedly inactive as they have not voted in at least two consecutive general elections. The number of unaffiliated voters is more than double the number of Democratic voters and a little over half of the Republican voters.

Activist Cornel West is the second independent candidate for president in 2024. Three other Democratic candidates are running to unseat President Joe Biden: author Marianne Williamson, news anchor Cenk Uygur, and Rep. Dean Phillips (D-MN).