Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. said Wednesday that his campaign has sufficient signatures to get on the ballot in 42 states — enough to potentially win 480 electoral college votes.

The Kennedy-Shanahan campaign needed to collect about 1 million signatures nationally to qualify.

What You Need To Know

  • Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. said Wednesday that his campaign has sufficient signatures to get on the ballot in 42 states

  • The Kennedy-Shanahan campaign is certified in 13 states and has submitted signatures in another 19

  • The last independent candidate to secure ballot access in 50 states was Ross Perot in 1992

  • According to polling average data analyzed by CNN on Wednesday, with Kamala Harris now the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, the level of voter support for the Kennedy campaign has fallen from 15% in December 2023 to 5% presently

“The draconian and Byzantine rules that govern ballot access in the 50 states were written by the Democrat or Republican party to prevent competition to make it insurmountable for an independent candidate for the presidency to ever get their name on the ballot in all 50 states,” Kennedy said in a briefing on his campaign’s ballot access status. “Like many of the other things that people have predicted about us during this campaign, we have been able to overcome impossible odds."

The Kennedy-Shanahan campaign said Wednesday it had secured the signatures it needs to get on the ballot in Alabama, Arkansas, Kansas, Massachusetts, Montana, North Dakota, Vermont and Virginia. Two days ago, the campaign announced it had enough signatures to get on the ballot in Connecticut, Idaho, Iowa, Maine, Missouri, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.

The Kennedy-Shanahan campaign is currently certified to appear on the ballot in 13 states, including Alabama, Indiana, Minnesota and Nebraska.

“Independent ballot access is a labyrinth laced with a minefield,” Kennedy-Shanahan Senior Campaign and Ballot Access Director Nick Brana said during the briefing.

It is rife with hurdles including different paper sizes and signature requirements for petitions and an elaborate process for vetting electors, Brana said. But with the help of more than 115,000 volunteers and $52 million in donations, the Kennedy-Shanahan ticket says it’s on track to achieve what no independent candidate has accomplished since Ross Perot’s failed bid for the presidency in 1992.

Kennedy said the experience has put his campaign “at a huge advantage in the upcoming election because we now have 100,000 volunteers who are highly motivated, who are proven, who are battle tested, who are on the street, and we are now deploying them.”

According to polling average data analyzed by CNN on Wednesday, with Kamala Harris now the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, the level of voter support for the Kennedy campaign has fallen from 15% in December 2023 to 5% presently.