A group of Democrats are working to have independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. removed from the ballots in Georgia ahead of the 2024 presidential election.
On Monday, the challengers told a judge in Georgia that Kennedy uses a “sham” address for his residence in New York and argued that he should not be allowed on the presidential voting ballots in the state of Georgia later this year.
Last week, a judge in New York ruled that Kennedy does not actually live in New York and should not be allowed on ballots in the state, following a legal fight by Kennedy arguing that his official address was at a home in Katonah, New York.
Kennedy is working on an appeal to the judge’s ruling in New York. However, the ruling in New York has led to similar challenges seeking to remove Kennedy from ballots in other states.
Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images
In Georgia, challengers argue that Kennedy’s use of a New York address on his qualifying petitions for an independent run should render the petitions invalid.
“The court found, by clear and convincing evidence that petitioners had shown that his New York residence was a sham used for political purposes,” lawyer Adam Sparks said after a Monday hearing in Atlanta, the Associated Press (AP) reported. “He doesn’t live there. He claimed to on each and every sheet of his petition here in Georgia. That’s improper. It invalidates the petition, full stop.”
However, Kennedy’s lawyer, Larry Otter said, “Mr. Kennedy has been a lifelong resident of the state of New York.”
Kennedy’s lawyer also argued that the group of Democratic challengers are seeking to wrongly impose qualifications on a candidate for president other than ones listed in the U.S. Constitution, which include that a person must be at least 35 years of age, they must have lived in the country for at least 14 years and were born in the United States.
On the other hand, Sparks questioned Kennedy’s political preference as an independent candidate, saying that as a nominee for his own “We the People Party” he is not qualified to run for president under the law in Georgia.
“They circumvent requirements for qualification in Georgia by gaming the system,” Sparks said.
Georgia is one of several states where Democrats and their allies have challenged Kennedy’s ballot petitions. While Kennedy’s campaign claims to have secured enough signatures for ballot access in all 50 states, legal challenges to his eligibility persist.
