Judge Rules Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Can’t Appear On New York State Ballot After Declaring His Residency Claim ‘A Sham’

A court in Albany, New York, ruled that independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. can’t appear on the New York State presidential ballot.

A recent lawsuit alleges that Kennedy’s New York ballot nomination petition listed a residence in Katonah, New York, while he actually lived in the Los Angeles area since 2014. The suit is backed by Clear Choice PAC, a super PAC led by progressives

It was also filed on behalf of several voters hoping to invalidate the independent candidate’s New York ballot petition. The lawsuit claims that he “at most only visited” the residence about 40 miles north of midtown Manhattan. Kennedy testified last Tuesday that his address is in Katonah. He also said that he moved to California in 2014 to be with his wife, Cheryl Hines. 

On August 6, Barbara Moss, the woman who has owned the Katonah property since 1991, testified that the candidate rents a room from her for $500 a month. However, Moss also recognized that those payments started a day after a news article questioned Kennedy’s claim that he lived in New York.

According to court papers, she lives in Katonah with her husband, Timothy Haydock, an old Kennedy friend.

Democratic Party-backed lawyers presented extensive evidence in court, such as driver’s license records and falconry licenses, to prove that Kennedy was not a New York resident.

“The courts are recognizing what voters are catching onto: RFK Jr. is a fraud,” a spokesperson for the Democrat-aligned group MoveOn wrote in a statement. “He knows he’ll never have a chance to win, but he and his MAGA donors are attempting to mislead voters to sway the election to Trump.”

The Kennedy campaign responded with a statement. “The Democrats are showing contempt for democracy,” his team declared. 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 DNC has become a party that uses lawfare in place of the democratic election process,” they added.

Justice Christina L. Ryba ordered Kennedy not to appear on this ballot.

“Kennedy’s designation of the 84 Croton Lake Road address as his ‘place of residence’ was a false statement requiring invalidation of the petition,” Ryba stated in the decision.

“The overwhelming credible evidence introduced at trial established that Kennedy’s connections with the 84 Croton Lake Road address existed only on paper and were maintained for the sole purpose of maintaining his voter registration and political standing in the State of New York,” she wrote.

Kennedy is struggling to raise money for his campaign.

Despite the publicity he has gained and the unusually high showing for a third-party candidate in national polling, he has yet to excite those small-dollar donors into donating to his campaign.

On August 4, Kennedy confessed to actress Roseanne Barr in a video posted on X that he dumped the dead body of a bear cub in Central Park ten years ago.

A New Yorker story published on August 5 suggested that this incident happened in the fall of 2014. The timing aligns with the media coverage surrounding a dead bear cub discovered in Central Park in 2014.