​A threat to democracy? Only Biden will appear on North Carolina primary ballot — a luxury not afforded to Trump in 2020

When North Carolina Democrats head to the polls on March 5 to cast their primary votes, President Joe Biden's name will be the only Democrat on the ticket.

On Tuesday, the North Carolina State Board of Elections unanimously voted to approve the North Carolina Democratic Party's request that Biden be the only Democrat listed on the primary ballot.

Under North Carolina law, state political parties must submit a list of candidates for their primary ballot within three months of the primary election.

"The list must be comprised of candidates whose candidacy is generally advocated and recognized in the news media throughout the United States or in North Carolina," the law states.

But last month, the North Carolina Democratic Party submitted only Biden's name, despite Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minn.) and Marianne Williamson being nationally recognized candidates. Both Phillips and Williamson, in addition to progressive media personality Cenk Uygur, had petitioned to be added to the primary ballot. Uygur is constitutionally ineligible because he is not a natural-born citizen.

The decision to keep those candidates off the Democratic primary ballot — which limits the choice of North Carolina Democrats to Biden only — did not go over well.

• Phillips said: "This year the Democratic Party decided an election wasn't desirable — so they shafted voters by placing only Biden's name on the ballot. The destruction of democracy by the people entrusted with protecting it."
• Williamson said: "Their decision to protect political parties instead of voters is a failure to protect democracy itself. The North Carolina State Board of Elections has disgraced themselves and disgraced the voters of North Carolina. The crisis of Democracy in our nation is institutional."
• Uygur said: "It’s remarkable that no one in media, including right-wing media, has noticed that the Biden team has now tried to remove opponents from the ballots in the primary and general election. Is anyone allowed to run against him?"

The North Carolina Democratic Party justified its request by claiming that Phillips and Williamson are not actively campaigning in the state.

The irony of the decision is that the key campaign message from Biden and Democrats is that Donald Trump and the Republican Party represent an existential threat to democracy because they want to subvert elections.

And yet: Colorado and Maine have ruled Trump ineligible for their ballots, while state Democratic Party officials — first in Florida and now North Carolina — are denying Democratic voters the opportunity to choose a Democrat other than Biden in their state primary election.

Even worse: The North Carolina State Board of Elections exercised its statuary power in 2020 to override the state Republican Party's submission of only Trump's name for the 2020 Republican primary.

The News & Observer explained:

In 2020, the board decided differently, voting unanimously to allow two other Republican candidates to be added to the presidential primary ballot list, which until then only featured then-President Trump’s name.

During that 2020 board meeting, Bob Orr, a former N.C. Supreme Court justice who’s been one of Trump’s most prominent Republican critics in the state, spoke on behalf of the two Republican candidates seeking to be added, former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld and former U.S. Rep. Joe Walsh. Nobody spoke on behalf of more obscure candidates also seeking addition.

A decision regarding Trump's constitutional eligibility, meanwhile, is also being considered in North Carolina courts after the BOE rejected an attempt to remove Trump from the ballot.

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