Election interference or happenstance?

Despite the ruling by North Carolina’s Supreme Court to the contrary, most North Carolinians believe we are entitled to free and fair elections. They oppose any attempts to interfere with peoples’ right to vote or the accurate counting of those votes. Sadly, there are some willing to undermine our confidence in our election systems and interfere with election outcomes.
 
Two recent North Carolina examples cause us raise our eyebrows. The first involves whether or not Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. should have his name included on our presidential election ballot. It is comical that Kennedy fought so hard to get his name put on the ballot, then suddenly decided he wanted his name removed.
 
Democrats had opposed having RFK’s name included because they believed that any votes he received would be votes taken away from Joe Biden. But when Biden dropped out of the race on July 21, the political winds suddenly shifted. Kamala Harris immediately changed the election dynamic. And it was Republicans who suddenly believed Kennedy would be stealing votes away from Trump.
 
It was commonly understood that Kennedy’s campaign was out of gas. He had not gotten national traction. No polls showed him getting more than 5 to 6 percent of the votes. Even worse, he was out of cash – broke! But Kennedy decided he could be a spoiler, much as Ross Perot was in the 1992 election. In battleground states the margin of difference between Trump and Harris was razor thin, no more than 5 percent. Kennedy decided he could be a kingmaker and went shopping with his 5 percent.
 
Harris quickly said she wasn’t willing to entertain any kind of deal with RFK. Trump, clearly willing to do most anything to win the presidency, welcomed Kennedy and on August 23, the announcement was made that RFK was dropping out and throwing his support to Trump. Both proclaim no deal was made between them, but don’t be surprised by a cabinet appointment for RFK should Trump win.
 
Kennedy asked our State Board of Elections to remove his name from the ballot. Absentee ballots had been printed and were ready to be mailed on September 6th. The Board, in a 3-2 partisan vote, declared the request came too late and denied Kennedy’s request. Elections chair Karen Brinson Bell said it would take weeks go through all the coding, testing and preparations for new ballots to be printed. Haste could result in errors.
 
RFK – remember he is broke – hired lawyers and took his case to court. A Wake County Superior Court judge agreed with the State Board, but Kennedy appealed. A three-judge panel of judges on the NC Court of Appeals ruled RFK’s name should be removed from ballots. We don’t know the political affiliation of the three judges, but 11 of the 15 are Republicans. Do the math.
 
The case was appealed, and the NC Supreme Court ruled 4-3 to remove Kennedy’s name. Four Republicans voted for the removal, the two Democrats voted against removal, as did one Republican.
 
The episode is predicted to benefit Republicans and hurt Democrats.
 
Then there’s the lawsuit by North Carolina’s Republican Party declaring that the Board of Elections must remove 225,000 registered voters from casting ballots because their driver’s license photo or last four digits of their social security number were not included on their registrations. By the way, practically all of our 7.6 million registered voters don’t have this information on their registration forms because it wasn’t legally required until just recently. There was no evidence presented that any of the 225,000 were ineligible to vote. And federal election laws prohibit any such action so close to the election.
 
This is clearly nothing more than an attempt to cast doubt about our election integrity. It sets the stage for a potential claim of a stolen election if Republican candidates don’t prevail November 5th.
 
Here’s my spin: Perhaps one or both of these two instances are just curious happenstance, but as a doubting Thomas neither passes my smell test. It is a shame that we live in a time when we are skeptical about board and court decisions. It is a shame that there is any question about whether our elections are fair, well administered and accurately counted. It is even more a shame when losers cannot accept defeat gracefully.
 
But since the 2020 elections our antennas are raised to the possibility that some wantonly try to interfere with election outcomes and cast doubt on election integrity. There already rumors of violence or tampering with this election. Instead of preventing us from voting, these threats should strengthen our resolve that no one can interfere with our vote, regardless of who they are or what party they belong to.
 
The watchword for the 2024 election is: If you see something, say something to someone who can do something.
 
Tom Campbell is a Hall of Fame North Carolina broadcaster and columnist who has covered North Carolina public policy issues since 1965.  Contact him at tomcamp@carolinabroadcasting.com