No Labels gets enough signatures to appear on ballots in North Carolina

(The Center Square) – No Labels, the 501(c)(4) social welfare organization established in 2009, has been given recognition in North Carolina.

In a Sunday meeting of its State Board of Elections, the five-member panel gave No Labels political party recognition. The nonprofit provided 14,837 signatures to qualify, 932 above the 13,865 minimum.

Interestingly, No Labels says on its website opponents of its “insurance project” say the organization is a “national political party committee like the Democratic National Committee or Republican National Committee. This is untrue. A political party’s purpose is to campaign for its candidates up and down the ballot, year after year. But No Labels’ project is something much narrower and more focused: We are simply clearing away the ballot access obstacles built by the major parties to create space for the potential nomination of an independent Unity Ticket, if that’s what the American public wants.”

What Sunday’s development means is that if No Labels considers running a candidate, it will be able to put one on the ballot. In addition to North Carolina, No Labels has gained ballot access in Alaska, Arizona, Colorado and Oregon. It won a lawsuit in Arizona on Thursday.

In North Carolina, former Republican Gov. Pat McCrory and former national NAACP Executive Director Ben Chavis have been leaders for the organization.

Multiple published reports indicate No Labels is considering running a candidate for president. Among those, West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin is a name bandied about. McCrory has told Carolina Journal in North Carolina he would not be a running mate, as reports have suggested.

No Labels, according to its website, is “a growing national movement of commonsense Americans pushing our leaders together to solve our country’s biggest problems. Our movement includes conservatives, liberals and everyone in between, but we are all united by certain fundamental beliefs.”

In another item from the meeting, the state board rejected language on the Reasonable Impediment Form that would have permitted voting without a photo identification if the voter says he or she “did not know photo ID was required for voting.” The state Republican Party issued a release late in the afternoon praising the three Democrats and two Republicans on the board for their decision.

“Voter ID has been put before North Carolina voters, who have supported this simple election integrity measure in resounding fashion time and again,” said Michael Whatley, the party chairman, in a release. “This ‘Ignorance of the Law’ proposal never passed the smell test.”