The Constitution Party delivered petitions for ballot access to the State Board of Elections on Monday, vowing to run candidates up and down the ballot once it regains its status as an official party.
“What we’re doing here in the third party movement is the most patriotic thing and honoring those soldiers that fought and died to give us this right not to be held captive to a few people in the establishment parties,” Al Pisano, the party’s chairman, said.
The Constitution Party supports a variety of conservative policy positions, such as banning abortion, supporting the Second Amendment and upholding the “traditional nuclear family, consisting of one man and one woman joined by marriage,” per its website.
Pisano said the party does not identify itself with the “conservative” label, though, and sees itself as distinct from Republicans.
“You either believe that government is restrained within the parameters of the Constitution, or you’re just for whatever feel-good thing comes down the road,” he said. “… We’re giving way too much power to the government over our lives when we do that. What we’re about is holding government accountable to the Constitution that restrains it.”
The path to ballot access
The party has turned in nearly 15,000 valid signatures that have been checked by county boards of elections, per the state’s online petition module. That’s around 1,000 more than is required to gain recognition, but the state board will still need to certify the petition results before the party can begin nominating candidates.
The party has a tight deadline to meet. It’ll need to nominate candidates by July 1 in order to appear on the ballot this year.
Pat Gannon, a spokesperson for the board, said the board will begin reviewing the documentation provided by the party to see if it meets the legal requirements for recognition. The board has not set a date for a meeting to vote on certifying the party.
If approved, this won’t be the first time the Constitution Party has been on the ballot in North Carolina.
Pisano ran for governor in 2020 after the Constitution Party gained ballot access in 2018. He got just under 21,000 votes — around 0.4% of all votes cast — not enough to meet the state’s 2% requirement for the party to keep its recognition.
A Libertarian candidate received another 60,000 votes. Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper won over his Republican challenger by more than 200,000 votes.
That meant party members had to restart the petition process, collecting at least 13,865 signatures from voters all across the state.
Other third parties gain NC recognition
The Constitution Party wouldn’t be the only third party on the ballot this year.
Libertarians have nominated several candidates up and down the ballot.
In 2022, the Green Party underwent a fraught campaign for ballot access in which the state board initially denied the party recognition, citing potential fraud in its petition campaign. The Green Party sued, and the board later reversed its decision.
This year, the Green Party is running Wayne Turner for governor and has several candidates for down-ballot races as well.
Last year, the board certified a new political party called No Labels, which presents itself as a moderate alternative to Democrats and Republicans.
So far, No Labels has not nominated any candidates in North Carolina.
On Monday, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is running for president as an independent candidate, said in a news release that his campaign had collected enough signatures in North Carolina to form a new political party called “We the People.” The State Board’s website only has 20 valid signatures listed so far for this party.