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A New York judge ruled on Monday that Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s application for ballot certification in his state is invalid. This deals the independent presidential candidate’s application for statewide ballot certification a first serious blow.
New York State Supreme Court Justice Christina Ryba joined the Democratic electors’ arguments, supported by Clear Choice PAC, a pro-Kamala Harris group that campaigns against third-party candidates, which claimed Kennedy violated state law by listing a New York address as his residence in the petition, even though he lives in California.
Ryba wrote that Kennedy’s listed New York address was not “a real and legal residence, but merely a ‘sham address’ that he adopted to maintain his voter registration and to pursue his own political ambitions in this state.”
The ruling is the first major legal defeat Kennedy has suffered in his bid to be certified to stand in all 50 states and Washington, D.C. Kennedy’s campaign has beaten challenges in several other states, and Kennedy himself remained confident as of Friday that he would be certified to stand nationwide.
In a statement following the decision on Monday, Kennedy said he intends to appeal the ruling in federal court.
“The Democrats show contempt for democracy,” Kennedy said in the statement. “They are not confident they can win at the ballot box, so they are trying to deny voters a choice. We will appeal and we will win.”
The campaign has worked hard to qualify, particularly in New York, collecting thousands of signatures during the six-week collection period this spring and holding several campaign events in the state. Kennedy testified in person at the hearing in Albany, New York, last week to defend his ballot access.
The challenge concerned the legality of the Katonah, New York, address listed as a residence on Kennedy’s ballot, even though Kennedy had lived in Los Angeles since running for president. During the trial, it emerged that the address was a rented bedroom in the home of a friend of Kennedy’s. Kennedy testified that he had no “physical attachment” to the New York address and had slept in the Katonah bedroom only once since renting it, but the candidate said he intended to return to New York when his wife, actress Cheryl Hines, ends her acting career.
When asked if he planned to return to New York with his wife and several pets to live in the rented bedroom, Kennedy said during his testimony, “That’s possible.”
Clear Choice’s lawyers presented evidence that Kennedy had regularly listed his Los Angeles address as his residence in recent years, including in the paperwork he filed with the Federal Election Commission last year for his presidential candidacy.
Kennedy testified that he repeatedly used addresses of friends and relatives to maintain his voter registration in New York. For example, he listed his sister’s residence in upstate New York as his own in order to vote in the state’s 2016 primary and general elections after she sold the house in November 2015.
When asked why he went to such lengths to maintain voter registration in New York rather than registering in California, Kennedy said, “I didn’t want to move my voter registration to California because I’m a New Yorker.”
Ryba strongly condemned Kennedy’s efforts to maintain his status as a registered voter in New York, saying that allowing Kennedy to gain access to the ballot using a “placeholder” address would run counter to the spirit of New York’s petition law.
“Using a friend’s address for political and electoral purposes while rarely setting foot on the premises is not a residence under the Election Code,” Ryba wrote in the ruling. “To rule otherwise would set a dangerous precedent and open the door to the fraud and political mischief that the Election Code’s residency rules are designed to prevent.”
Kennedy’s lawyers argued that he did not intentionally mislead voters by listing the New York address as his residence. He said he was advised to do so by Paul Rossi, the campaign’s lead attorney for ballot certifications, who confirmed the claim in his own testimony. Kennedy’s lawyers argued that New York’s residency laws unconstitutionally enforce residency requirements beyond the 12th Amendment, which prohibits electors from voting for a president and vice president who both live in the same state as themselves.
Kennedy’s vice presidential candidate is Silicon Valley lawyer and entrepreneur Nicole Shanahan.
Ryba rejected every argument from Kennedy’s team and named the 12th Argument for amendment “a diversionary tactic”.
“The Constitution of the United States cannot be interpreted to protect candidates from making false statements in their applications for public office,” she wrote.
Pete Kavanaugh, founder of Clear Choice, praised the ruling in a statement on Monday, saying the decision proves that Kennedy “lied and that he will be held accountable.”
“Today’s ruling makes clear that Mr. Kennedy lied about his residency and provided a false address on his New York filings and candidate applications. In doing so, he intentionally misled election officials and abused the trust of voters,” Kavanaugh said.
As of Monday, Kennedy had defeated challenges to his eligibility to vote in six states. But Ryba’s ruling could lend additional legitimacy to challenges to his New York residency organized by Clear Choice in other states. On Monday, Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows said she would review an appeal of Kennedy’s application in that state that includes a challenge to Kennedy’s New York residency of record, among other things. Clear Choice has organized appeals in Pennsylvania and Illinois that also address his residency of record.
Kennedy has so far qualified for the ballot in 17 states, giving him 220 electoral votes. His campaign says it has collected signatures in every state and in Washington, DC.
This story has been updated with additional details.
