The Nevada secretary of state’s office said in a statement Monday that it “provided inaccurate guidance” to Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s presidential campaign regarding whether the campaign needed to announce its vice presidential candidate prior to gathering signatures to gain ballot access in the state.
Earlier this month, Kennedy’s campaign announced it had gathered enough signatures to qualify for the ballot in Nevada. Shortly after that announcement, Nevada Secretary of State Francisco Aguilar, a Democrat, sent a memo to all independent presidential campaigns, including Kennedy’s, calling attention to a state law that indicates candidates must “designate a nominee for Vice President” in their petition of candidacy.
According to email correspondence shared by the Kennedy campaign, a staffer in the secretary of state’s office had told the campaign in November that the name of the vice presidential candidate was not required to be on the petitions.
In a statement to CNN, Nevada secretary of state spokesperson Cecilia Heston said that “an error” had been made in communicating ballot access guidance to the Kennedy campaign.
“This was an error, and will be handled appropriately. In no way was the initial error or subsequent statutory guidance made with intent to benefit or harm any political party or candidate for office,” Heston said in the statement.
Heston also said that despite the incorrect guidance to the Kennedy campaign, the state’s law governing independent candidate ballot access still holds.
Why this matters: The misunderstanding could mean the signatures Kennedy has gathered in Nevada are invalid, forcing the campaign to start from square one after the candidate announces his vice presidential nominee Tuesday.
Paul Rossi, a ballot access attorney for the Kennedy campaign, said in a statement Monday that the mistake amounted to “corruption” and suggested Nevada Democrats were attempting to block Kennedy from gaining ballot access in the state.
“The petition does not even have a field for a VP on it. The state confirmed that the petition does not require a VP in writing on Nov. 14,” Rossi said.
The deadline for the Kennedy campaign to file its ballot access petition in Nevada is August 9.
CBS News first reported the error made by the Nevada Secretary of State’s office.
