Metro

The insane price tag that RFK Jr. paid to get on NY’s ballot

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Social Links for Vaughn Golden
Published May 28, 2024, 5:27 p.m. ET

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s campaign paid people a whopping $90 an hour to collect signatures in New York to get him on the state’s ballot for his long-shot independent presidential campaign.

The independant hopeful’s campaign – which said Tuesday it submitted enough valid signatures to get him on the ballot — shelled out a total of more than a million dollars for the effort, according to a lawsuit it filed against the state Board of Elections last week protesting the required name-collecting.

“Plaintiff has been forced to pay petition circulators $90.00 per hour, costing Plaintiff over $1.1 million dollars just to secure ballot access in New York for the 2024 general election ballot,” Kennedy’s campaign griped in the suit.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
RFK Jr.’s campaign says it hired people for $90 an hour to collect signatures to get on New York’s presidential ballot. Getty Images

ZipRecruiter says the national hourly average for “petition signature jobs” is $35, while minimum wage for New York is between about $14 and $16.

Kennedy is suing in federal court to try and invalidate New York’s 45,000-signature threshold that such independent presidential candidates need to reach in order to get onto the ballot, as well as other intricacies involved in collecting the signatures.

Major party candidates – Democrats, Republicans, Working Families and Conservatives in New York — can secure ballot access by their internal party nomination processes.

Green Party presidential hopeful Dr. Jill Stein, speaking to reporters at the state capitol Tuesday, said her own campaign intended to use paid petitioners like Kennedy but had to adjust after his camp quickly bought up many of the firms that do the work.

“Our intention was to hire a substantial number of professional outfits, but there were very few that we can find because they have basically been bought up by RFK,” Stein said.

Will Boothby, Kennedy campaign northeast regional field director, said in a statement, “The State of New York has stacked the deck against independent candidates in every way possible, combining the worst aspects of ballot access restrictions into one amalgamation designed to stop any candidate from achieving what we have achieved today.”

Kennedy’s campaign did boast that it submitted just over 135,000 signatures – roughly three times the 45,000 valid signatures needed — though at least some of the John Hancocks are almost certain to face a typical procedural challenge from an opponent questioning their legitimacy.

Silicon Valley lawyer Nicole Shanahan, who RFK Jr. has tapped as his running mate, personally injected $8 million into the campaign’s ballot fund last month.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Kennedy’s campaign spent so much on paid petitioners that at least one other candidate said she is finding it difficult to find workers for her own effort. Getty Images

Stein didn’t have her exact figures on hand but said she believes she submitted enough signatures to get on the ballot in New York as well before Tuesday’s deadline.

“The whole system is very different this year across the country because there’s so much money now pouring into a grassroots campaign, drawing on the professional signature collectors,” Stein said, pointing to the millions of dollars RFK Jr.’s donors have donated to his campaign.

New York state Conservative Party Chairman Gerald Kassar told The Post of Kennedy, “I think it’s a reflection of his lack of grassroots support and reflective of his support from people who don’t know who he is.”

Kassar said he’s heard of petitioners being paid in the $20 to $30 range but never as high as $90 per hour.

Getting on the state ballot is not the only issue Kennedy has had to contend with in New York.

As The Post revealed last week, Kennedy may not live in the Westchester County home he officially lists on his voter registration. The residence is facing foreclosure.