Ballot Access Breaking News: Kennedy Gathers Enough Signatures to Qualify for the Ballot in New York

By Leah Watson, The Kennedy Beacon

On May 28, presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy submitted a whopping 135,519 signatures to officials in New York State, roughly three times more than the number required for ballot access in the Empire State.

Kennedy’s campaign chief of staff, Brigid Rasmussen, along with the leader of Kennedy’s New York effort, Will Boothby, and dozens of volunteers, brought the 70 volumes of signatures to the Board of Elections in Albany, New York. Just as the boxes were being delivered to the Ten Eyck building’s 5th floor, a fire alarm sounded for a scheduled drill. Thirty minutes later, the reassembled campaign staff was assured ballots had not been tampered with and would be scanned by the end of the day.

Worth 28 electoral votes, New York has the nation’s fourth most such votes, behind California (54), Texas (40), and Florida (30). 

As reported by The Kennedy Beacon, New York is one of the most difficult states in which to gain ballot access, requiring 45,000 signatures, gathered within a tight deadline of 42 days. New York signature requirements were increased by then-governor Andrew Cuomo, who slipped this new requirement into the emergency COVID budget. In 2020, only 15,000 valid signatures were required to qualify for the ballot in New York. Since then the minimum number has tripled. 

Anticipating challenges to some signatures, Kennedy submitted over triple the requirement; therefore, the opposition will have to try to find at least 90,519 invalid signatures within nine days, according to election law. A tall order. 

Still, Team Kennedy expects that Democratic National Committee (DNC)-aligned groups will try to keep Kennedy off the ballot through other legal means.

Against many odds, the Kennedy-Shanahan ticket is officially on the ballot in seven states — Utah, Michigan, California, Delaware, Oklahoma, Hawaii, and Texas. It has collected enough signatures for ballot access in nine other states — New Hampshire, Nevada, North Carolina, Idaho, Nebraska, Iowa, Ohio, New Jersey, and now New York. Kennedy also recently received a nomination for the Reform Party line in Florida.

The campaign has completed petitioning for ballot eligibility in 15 states, thereby allowing Kennedy to be eligible to earn 201 (not including New York’s 28) of the 270 Electoral College votes required to win the presidency. That eligibility is also one of the published requirements for participation in the two upcoming debates against President Biden and former President Trump.

The first of two debates, hosted by CNN, is set for historically early June 27 in Atlanta; ABC News will host the second debate on September 10.

CNN declared participating candidates would have to be eligible to earn 270 electoral votes by June 20 to be on the debate stage. Kennedy is committed to participating in the debate and, last week, indicated his campaign had filed a complaint with the FEC. 

In a video published on May 23, Kennedy told a Scripps reporter, “Today we filed a complaint with the FEC, and we believe if the FEC enforces the law… There’s also strong evidence in the media of collusion between the Trump campaign and the Biden campaign – particularly the Biden campaign – and CNN.” 

In the video, Kennedy also stated that he already has enough signatures to qualify for the ballot in additional states, but is intentionally holding them back, waiting to turn in the signatures until the exact dates they’re due.

(Francis Scott contributed to this report)