Third-party ballot drives are pushed by secretive groups and GOP donors

Libertarians in Colorado want to put Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on the ballot to create chaos.

Petition drives for Cornel West in Virginia and North Carolina are being run by groups with Republican ties.

And in Arizona, a convicted fraudster who's been repeatedly investigated for using deceptive tactics to gather signatures for conservative groups is also working on West's behalf.

With early voting for the November presidential election set to begin in late September in some states, there are signs across the country that groups are trying to affect the outcome by using deceptive means—and in most cases in ways that would benefit Republican Donald Trump. Their aim is to to whittle away President Joe Biden's standing with the Democratic Party's base by offering left-leaning, third-party alternatives who could siphon off a few thousand protest votes in close swing state contests.

Spoiler candidates are as old as representative democracy. But in a polarized country in which many Americans have voiced disapproval for both Biden and Trump, the zeal with which Trump's supporters and allies have lent assistance to third-party candidacies adds a new dimension that's deeply troubling to Democrats.