Robert F. Kennedy Jr. can appear on New Jersey's ballot, state's top elections official says

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. didn’t violate New Jersey’s “sore loser” law and can appear on the ballot as an independent candidate for president, the state’s top elections official said Wednesday.

Lt. Gov. Tahesha Way, who also serves as secretary of state, issued an order upholding in part an administrative law judge’s determination just a day earlier.

The ruling means Kennedy can appear on the November ballot, and Way accepted his petition as an independent.

Way rejected part of Administrative Law Judge Ernest Bongiovanni’s ruling saying that election attorney Scott Salmon’s challenge to Kennedy was untimely. She found the judge was mistaken.

Kennedy’s campaign praised the decision in an emailed statement.

“New Jersey is a perfect example of where we have defeated a Democratic Party complaint that had no merit,” the campaign said.

New Jersey, like a number of other states, has a sore loser law that bars candidates who ran in a primary from running as independents in a general election. Bongiovanni’s ruling follows another judge’s similar opinion.

Way decided the matter under state law in her role as the state’s top elections official

Salmon brought a suit in 2020 saying that then-potential presidential candidate Kanye West gathered an inadequate number of signatures. At the time, Salmon said he was a registered Democrat. West eventually withdrew his petition to be on the ballot.

In a statement Salmon said he believes Kennedy went afoul of the law and should have been kept from the ballot, but said he believes Way put “reasonable guardrails in place.”

Kennedy’s famous name and a loyal base have buoyed his bid for the White House. Strategists from both major parties had voiced concerns that he might negatively affect their candidate’s chances.

A similar challenge in New York questioning his claim that he lives in New York is unfolding in court there. He testified this week that his address is in the New York City suburb of Katonah.

Salmon sought to keep Kennedy from the ballot as an independent under a state law that bars candidates who run for a major party nomination in a primary from seeking the same office in the general election as an independent. Salmon sought to use the statute, known as a sore loser law, because Kennedy had filed with the Federal Election Commission in April 2023 to run as a Democrat; he amended the filing in October to begin an independent bid.

Kennedy argued that Salmon didn’t have standing to sue because he isn’t a candidate for president himself, among other arguments.