Bernie Sanders is filing Thursday to appear on New Hampshire’s Democratic primary ballot. There’s just one problem: he’s an independent.
While Sanders caucuses with the Democrats in the Senate, he has been elected as an independent. He has also run on the ticket of other minor parties during his years running for office in Vermont.
In order to ensure that Sanders does not run into any trouble qualifying at the New Hampshire statehouse, New Hampshire Democratic chair Raymond Buckley will reportedly escort Sanders to his filing Thursday afternoon.
When Sanders first launched his campaign in April, New Hampshire Secretary of State William Gardner had said that he wasn’t sure as to whether or not or not Sanders would qualify for the state ballot.
“If they’re going to run in the primary, they have to be a registered member of the party,” Gardner told CNN. “Our declaration of candidacy form that they have to fill out says ‘I am a registered member of the party.'”
Although Sanders has recently referred to himself as a Democrat on the campaign trail, his home state of Vermont does not register voters by party.
Sanders does meet the Democratic National Committee’s qualifications for being on the ballot as a Democrat, which only says that a person must have “demonstrated a commitment to the goals and objectives of the Democratic Party.”
Sanders currently leads Hillary Clinton in New Hampshire, according to polling averages, by a margin of about 41.4 percent to 40 percent.
