In a whiplash-inducing turnaround, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., has filed a lawsuit in Wake County Superior Court to get his name removed from North Carolina’s ballot.
Just a few weeks ago, the We the People Party fought hard for official recognition from the North Carolina State Board of Elections, which, in part, resulted in getting Kennedy, the group’s presidential nominee, added to this year’s general election ballot.
But on August 23, Kennedy suspended his quixotic campaign and endorsed former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, lining himself up for a possible role in a future Trump administration.
Four days later, Kennedy submitted a letter to the North Carolina state elections board formally seeking to have his name removed from the ballot. Kennedy has done the same thing in other battleground states where his name on the ballot could draw votes away from Trump.
Ironically, Kennedy is suing in heavily blue New York to keep his name on the ballot even after the suspension of his campaign.
However, last week, the Democratic-majority state elections board ruled in a split vote — the three Democrats outvoting the board’s two Republican members — that removing Kennedy’s name at this juncture was impractical and denied his request.
“Already 67 counties have received their supply of absentee-by-mail ballots,” state elections board executive director Karen Brinson Bell told the board members at an emergency meeting called Thursday to consider Kennedy’s removal request.
Brinson Bell added that, with the statutory start of sending out requested absentee ballots set for Friday, Sept. 6, more than 1.7 million ballots had already been printed.
However, Kennedy’s lawsuit argues the board still had ample time — and statutory flexibility — to stop the printing of ballots and remove his name.
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Tussle over Kennedy’s request exposed partisan rifts
“I’m disappointed that counties are spending the money and that it seems to me that staff is trying to box us in on what our decision has to be,” said Republican elections board member Stacy Eggers, arguing for halting the printing of ballots ahead of last week’s party-line vote to deny Kennedy’s request for removal.
Eggers complained staff had not provided him with all the correspondence from the Kennedy campaign on its request for removal ahead of last week’s board meeting.
The board is governed by several statutes and rules when it comes to the timing of sending out absentee ballots.
Under state law, requested absentee ballots shall be sent out starting 60 days prior to Election Day, which, this year, is Friday, September 6.
Another state law allows nominees to withdraw as candidates as long as the request is made “prior to the first day on which military and overseas absentee ballots are transmitted to voters,” also 60 days before Election Day.
As for late changes to ballots, North Carolina administrative code authorizes the state elections board to determine “whether it is practical to have the ballots reprinted.”
“We followed the law and we sent all these counties going on printing up their ballots with Mr. Kennedy’s (name) on it,” said Siobhan Millen, one of the board’s three Democrats.
“It’s impractical, it was confusing, and it would incur needless expense to reprint ballots to remove We the People’s nominated candidate,” Millen added.
Kennedy’s lawsuit asks the court to intervene immediately, order the elections board to stop printing ballots and to remove his name.
