The name of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will no longer appear on the ballot in North Carolina, the state Supreme Court decided on Monday.
The GOP-controlled court ruled 4-3 in favor of correct ballots over the expenses and time delays associated with having to reprint the state’s votes, with one Republican and two Democratic members dissenting.
North Carolina absentee voting was scheduled to begin on Friday, but it was postponed due to Kennedy’s resignation from office following his withdrawal of his independent presidential run. The state board of elections reports that while ballots are being reproduced, absentee voting may now be postponed for over two weeks.
“We recognize that accelerating the process of printing new ballots will necessitate a substantial investment of time and energy from our election officials as well as financial burden to the State,” the majority stated. However, in order to defend citizens’ basic right to cast a ballot in accordance with their conscience and have that vote count, the North Carolina Constitution requires us to pay that price.
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Executive director of the state board Karen Brinson Bell advised county election boards on Monday night that while ballots with Kennedy’s name would still be reprinted, the current ballots “must be strictly separated and moved to storage to avoid any accidental usage in this election.”
According to Brinson Bell, counties ought to hold off on mailing ballots until a consistent date can be determined. Brinson Bell stated, “We will keep in touch with counties and ballot vendors to figure out the most practical date to begin distributing absentee ballots throughout the entire state.”
Voters who are serving overseas or in the military are required by federal law to begin casting their votes by September 21st, but according to Brinson Bell, the state board has “already begun discussions with the U.S. Department of Defense to seek a potential waiver of that deadline.”
Kennedy withdrew his name from the ballot last month and endorsed former President Donald Trump; however, the Democratic-controlled state board of elections rejected his request, voting along party lines and citing the impracticality of reprinting ballots and delaying the start of voting.
Kennedy appealed the ruling, and on Thursday, a lower court judge granted the state board’s position while granting Kennedy a 24-hour window to file an appeal. Kennedy’s name was ordered to be removed from the ballot by authorities after an appeals court reversed that judgment on Friday morning. This prompted the state board to request intervention from the state Supreme Court.
The state board was held accountable by the court for the situation, noting that “any harm suffered” by the board as a result of the directive to retake the votes “is of their own making.”
The board came under fire from the court for continuing to print ballots after Kennedy said on August 23 that he was suspending his campaign.
In her response to the court, Brinson Bell wrote to the counties that “it would have been impossible to reprint and meet the 60-day deadline” for ballot distribution because “by the time Kennedy’s campaign got a message to the State Board asking about the process to withdraw the evening of August 26 more than half of counties had started printing ballots.”
As noted by Brinson Bell in her remark, counties will bear the expense of reprinting the ballots. “We sincerely apologize for the hardship this causes you and your counties. We are aware of it.”
In a scathing dissent, Democratic Justice Allison Riggs attacked Kennedy as well as the appeals court.
“The extent of the harm inflicted by the Court of Appeals’ order is immense and unjustified, affecting not only the voters of the state who were granted sixty days by their elected legislature to receive and cast absentee ballots, but also the overworked and underpaid public servants who administer elections during a period when their work has put them in danger and harassment,” Riggs wrote.
Kennedy, according to Riggs, wanted to “have his cake and eat it, too.”
“He now wants to reprint millions of ballots because he has chosen to suspend his campaign without actually ending it or closing the possibility of winning again, forcing the state to put his name on the ballot and creating costs for the state both practically and legally.”of his election,” Riggs wrote
The Michigan Supreme Court’s decision the same day to keep Kennedy’s name on the state ballot led to the decision to remove him from it. Kennedy is contesting the Wisconsin Elections Commission’s choice to maintain his candidacy in that crucial Midwestern state as well.
Kennedy has worked to remove his name from the ballot in areas where Trump is the front-runner in an effort to increase the former president’s prospects of winning there since backing him.
Kennedy first declared that voters should still support him in states deemed safe for either major party. In a fundraising letter this week, he went back on that stance, urging his followers to support Trump “no matter what state you live in.”
