North Carolina’s Supreme Court ruled Monday that state election officials have to reprint presidential ballots and remove Robert F. Kennedy’s name.
Kennedy, who initially hoped to wage a third-party bid for the White House, has instead backed former President Donald Trump.
Kennedy has since launched a battle to have his name removed from states where he had secured ballot access so that voters who can’t stomach voting for Democratic candidate Vice President Kamala Harris will not have him as an alternative, theoretically boosting Trump’s chances.
According to ABC, Kennedy is no longer on the ballot in 10 other states: Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Maine, Nevada, New Hampshire, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas and South Carolina.
ABC reported that although Kennedy will be on the ballot in about 30 states, when it comes to swing states, only Wisconsin and Michigan have refused to allow Kennedy ‘s name to be withdrawn.
According to WisPolitics, Kennedy filed an appeal Monday to be removed from the ballot.
According to NBC, North Carolina’s ruling to remove Kennedy was offset by a final ruling from Michigan keeping Kennedy on the ballot.
The 4-3 North Carolina Supreme Court ruling upheld an appeals court ruling that overturned a lower court decision.
“We acknowledge that expediting the process of printing new ballots will require considerable time and effort by our election officials and significant expense to the State,” Justice Trey Allen wrote in the majority opinion.
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“But that is a price the North Carolina Constitution expects us to incur to protect voters’ fundamental right to vote their conscience and have that vote count,” the opinion said.
The court said that if Kennedy remained on the ballot “it could disenfranchise countless voters who mistakenly believe that plaintiff remains a candidate for office.”
Reprinting ballots has altered the timetable for getting ballots printed. North Carolina initially scheduled ballots to be mailed to voters Sept. 6, but that was put on hold as the Kennedy case made its way through the courts.
In rejecting Kennedy’s lawsuit to be removed from the ballot, the Michigan Supreme Court said he “has not shown an entitlement to this extraordinary relief,” according to The Associated Press.
“This plainly has nothing to do with ballot or election integrity,” Aaron Siri, an attorney for Kennedy, fired back, per Politico.
He said the aim of the court in the state dominated by Democratic officeholders “is precisely the opposite — to have unwitting Michigan voters throw away their votes on a withdrawn candidate.”
Two Republican-nominated justices wrote a dissenting opinion against the order. The court has a majority of judges who were nominated by Democrats.
“We can only hope that the Secretary’s misguided action — now sanctioned with the imprimatur of this Court — will not have national implications,” the dissent said.
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