Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speaks to attendees during a campaign rally at Brazos Hall on May 13, 2024 in Austin, Texas.
CNN —
A New York judge ruled Monday that Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s ballot-access petition in the state is invalid, delivering the first major blow to the independent presidential candidate’s bid for nationwide ballot access.
New York Supreme Court Justice Christina Ryba accepted the arguments made by Democratic voters and supported by Clear Choice PAC, a pro-Kamala Harris group seeking to combat third party candidates, which claimed Kennedy violated state law by listing a New York address as his residence on the petition despite living in California.
Ryba wrote that Kennedy’s listed New York address was not a “bona fide and legitimate residence, but merely a ‘sham’ address that he assumed for the purpose of maintaining his voter registration and furthering his own political aspirations in this State.”
The ruling marks the first major legal defeat Kennedy has suffered in his quest to qualify for the ballot in all 50 states and Washington, DC. Kennedy’s campaign has defeated challenges in several other states, and Kennedy himself maintained confidence he would gain ballot access nationwide as recently as Friday.
In a statement following the decision Monday, Kennedy said he plans to appeal the ruling in federal court.
“The Democrats are showing contempt for democracy,” Kennedy said in the statement. “They aren’t confident they can win at the ballot box, so they are trying to stop voters from having a choice. We will appeal and we will win.”
The campaign made a particularly strong push to qualify in New York, gathering thousands of signatures and holding multiple campaign events in the state during its six-week collection period this spring. Kennedy testified in person at the trial in Albany, New York, to defend his ballot access last week.
The challenge questioned the legitimacy of the Katonah, New York, address listed as Kennedy’s residence on his ballot petition in the state, despite living in Los Angeles since before running for president.The address was revealed during the trial to be a rented bedroom at the house of Kennedy’s friend. Kennedy testified that he does not have a “physical attachment” to the New York address and had only slept in the Katonah bedroom once since renting it, but the candidate said he intends to return to New York when his wife, actress Cheryl Hines, retires from acting.
When asked during testimony if he intended to return to New York with his wife and several pets to live in the rented bedroom, Kennedy said, “It’s possible.”
Attorneys for Clear Choice submitted evidence of Kennedy listing his Los Angeles address as his residence regularly in recent years, including on paperwork filed last year with the Federal Election Commission to run for president.
Kennedy testified he had repeatedly used addresses from friends and relatives to maintain his voter registration in New York, including listing his sister’s upstate New York residence as his own to vote in the state during the 2016 primary and general election after she sold the home in November 2015.
When asked why he went to great lengths to maintain voter registration in New York rather than registering in California, Kennedy said, “I did not want to change my voter registration to California because I’m a New Yorker.”
Ryba strongly condemned Kennedy’s efforts to keep his status as a registered voter in New York and said allowing Kennedy to earn ballot access with a “placeholder” address would undercut the spirit of New York’s petition laws.
“Using a friend’s address for political and voting purposes, while barely stepping foot on the premises, does not equate to residency under the Election Law,” Ryba wrote in the ruling. “To hold otherwise would establish a dangerous precedent and open the door to the fraud and political mischief that the Election Law residency rules were designed to prevent.”
Kennedy’s attorneys argued that he did not intentionally mislead voters by listing the New York address as his residence and said he was advised to do so by the campaign’s lead ballot access attorney Paul Rossi, who corroborated the claim in his own testimony. Kennedy’s attorneys argued that New York residency laws unconstitutionally enforce residency requirements beyond the 12thAmendment, which prohibits electors from voting for a president and vice president who both live in the same state as themselves.
Kennedy’s running mate is Silicon Valley attorney and entrepreneur Nicole Shanahan.
Ryba rebuffed each of the arguments made by Kennedy’s team and called the 12thAmendment argument “a red herring.”
“The United States Constitution cannot be construed to protect candidates from making false statements on their petitions for public office,” she wrote.
Clear Choice founder Pete Kavanaugh praised the ruling in a statement Monday, saying the decision proves Kennedy “lied, and he’s being held accountable.”
“Today’s ruling makes clear that Mr. Kennedy lied about his residency and provided a false address on his filing papers and candidate petitions in New York, intentionally misleading election officials and betraying voters’ trust,” Kavanaugh.
Until Monday, Kennedy had defeated challenges to his ballot access in six states. But Ryba’s ruling could give added legitimacy to complaints questioning his New York residency organized by Clear Choice in other states. On Monday, Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows said she will consider an objection to Kennedy’s petition in that state, part of which includes a challenge to Kennedy’s listed New York residency. Clear Choice has organized challenges in Pennsylvania and Illinois that also center on his listed residence.
Kennedy has qualified for the ballot in 17 states thus far, making him eligible for 220 electoral votes. His campaign says it’s completed signature gathering in every state and Washington, DC.
This story has been updated with additional details.
