HARRISBURG, Pennsylvania — A legal challenge filed Thursday seeks to bar third-party presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. from Pennsylvania’s fall elections, an effort with implications for the fiercely contested swing-state battle between Republican Donald Trump Trump and Democrat Kamala Haris.
The petition argues that the nomination papers filed by Kennedy and his running mate show “at best a fundamental disregard” for state law and the process by which signatures are collected.
It is alleged that Kennedy’s papers contain “numerous unauthorized signatures and defects” and that the documents are torn, taped over, and “contain handwriting patterns and corrections indicating that the declared voters did not sign those forms.”
Kennedy is facing legal challenges over ballot access in several states. Emails seeking comment were left with his campaign.
It is unclear how Kennedy’s independent candidacy might affect the presidential race. He is a member of a renowned Democratic family and has received support from conservatives who agree with his views against vaccination.
Pennsylvania’s 19 electoral votes and deeply divided electorate put it at the center of the Nov. 5 presidential election, now three months away. In 2016, Trump won Pennsylvania by 44,000 votes over Democrat Hillary Clinton, and four years later, President Joe Biden defeated Trump by 81,000 votes.
Also on Thursday, two separate challenges were filed in Pennsylvania to the nomination papers for Socialist and Liberation Party presidential candidate Claudia De la Cruz, as well as an attempt to bar Constitution Party presidential candidate James N. Clymer from the state ballot.
A challenge for De la Cruz, her running mate and her party’s voters is: Commonwealth Court to invalidate the nomination papers, arguing that there are seven electors who “have not defected” from the Democratic Party, an error in the papers that opponents say should make them ineligible.
A second challenge also raised this argument, as well as the claim that there are unauthorized signatures and other defects that render the nomination papers “fatally flawed” and that the party has not submitted a sufficient number of qualifying signatures.
Phone and email messages seeking comment were left with De la Cruz’s campaign on Thursday.
The challenge to Clymer, who may appear on the ballot, claims that he and his running mate should be disqualified for an alleged failure to submit required candidacy statements. Messages seeking comment were left Thursday for party chairman Bob Goodrich.