Weekly Ballot Access News: Kennedy Officially on the Ballot in Colorado and New Mexico

By Leah Watson, Breaking News Reporter, The Kennedy Beacon

On July 3, independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced a partnership with the Libertarian Party of Colorado (LPCO). According to Team Kennedy’s press release, the LPCO passed a resolution in favor of partnering with Kennedy, and as a result the Kennedy-Shanahan ticket will be on the Colorado ballot.

Two days later, on July 5, the campaign announced that Kennedy is officially on the ballot in New Mexico after the secretary of state certified that the Bureau of Elections had reviewed and validated Kennedy’s paperwork.

On the same day, the campaign announced that Kennedy has submitted a second round of signatures, over 30,000, for the state of Nevada, where his efforts have been facing push-back from the secretary of state, who seems determined to keep Kennedy off the ballot. 

Kennedy is officially on the ballot in 10 states and has has fulfilled access requirements in 17 additional states. That’s 27 out of 50, with the Kennedy campaign determined to hit that number in just weeks.

In Colorado, the LPCO has decided to align with Kennedy because he shares many Libertarian values and could prove to disrupt the two-party system. 

On May 26, delegates at the Libertarian National Convention selected Chase Oliver and running mate Mike ter Maat for the Libertarian ticket. Kennedy and former president Donald Trump spoke at the convention. Following Oliver’s selection, the LPCO announced that Oliver and ter Maat would not be placed on the Colorado ballot by the LPCO. 

In an interview with Free State Colorado, Hannah Goodman, chairwoman of the LPCO, spoke about how the Oliver-ter Maat ticket does not reflect the values of Colorado Libertarians. “[Oliver] wasn’t a popular candidate and didn’t represent Libertarians across the nation,” she said. “I think we have a better shot [at] Liberty through the RFK campaign than we do with Trump or Biden, and Chase Oliver is completely irrelevant as far as actual politicking on the national level.” 

The board of LPCO found many reasons not to place Oliver on the ballot, including his “alignment with the regime during COVID and all of that tyranny,” said Goodman. Additionally, the party disagrees with Oliver’s position on puberty blockers and chemical castrations. The LPCO views these interventions for children as NAP (non-aggression principle) violations, she said, “because it physically alters their body and they don’t necessarily have the ability to consent to these procedures.” 

Although Colorado is largely a Democratic state, the LPCO was interested in nominating Kennedy in order to “essentially leverage this to create a swing state situation and become real viable players at the national level,” Goodman said. “Creating a swing vote essentially is a declaration of war on the Democratic Party of Colorado by Libertarians.”

The members of the LPCO, like many American citizens, have become weary of the duopoly and seek a viable third option. The party believes that Kennedy could be the person to enable this.

According to Goodman, the LPCO has tried negotiating with the Democratic and Republican Parties in the past. Had either of those parties backed strong Liberty candidates, the LPCO would have dropped out of the race. “They ignored us, [the offer to negotiate] fell on deaf ears,” she recalled, but with Kennedy’s nomination “it’s going to be a lot harder to ignore the Libertarian Party going forward.”

In New York State, meanwhile, where the Libertarian Party did not qualify for the ballot, it is expected that many New York Libertarians will choose to vote for Kennedy rather than write in Chase Oliver.

Progress in Other States

Kennedy is officially on the ballot in 10 states, according to the campaign. He has handed in signatures, collected enough signatures, or been nominated by a minor party in 17 additional states. In a television interview with NewsNation, Kennedy stated that he will be on the ballot in all 50 states by mid-July.

Combining the electoral votes in the states where he is officially on the ballot with those where he has submitted signatures, has collected enough signatures, or has aligned with a minor party, Kennedy currently has a total of 363 electoral votes. This is mapped on the website 270toWin.

States in beige are those where Kennedy is officially on the ballot. States in yellow are those where he has submitted signatures, has collected enough signatures to qualify for the ballot, or has aligned with a minor party. States in red or blue are those where Kennedy has not yet completed signature collection.