A North Carolina appeals court ruled Friday that Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s name must be removed from the state's presidential election ballot, upending plans in the battleground state just as officials were about to begin mailing out the nation's first absentee ballots for the Nov. 5 presidential election.
The intermediate appeals court issued an order granting Kennedy's request to stop mailing ballots with his name on them, and also ordered a judge to order the state elections board to distribute ballots that don't have his name on them. No legal explanation was given.
State law requires the first absentee ballots to be mailed or delivered 60 days before the general election, which is the deadline Friday. State prosecutors have said it will likely take more than two weeks to reprint and package the ballots. The ruling could be appealed.
Kennedy, the North Carolina Populist Party candidate, filed a lawsuit last week to be removed from the state's ballot after he suspended his campaign and endorsed Republican candidate Donald Trump. But the Democratic majority on the state elections board rejected the request, saying the process of printing ballots and coding them for counting machines was too slow. Kennedy then filed suit.
Wake County Superior Court Judge Rebecca Holt on Thursday rejected Kennedy's attempt to remove his name from the ballot, prompting an appeal. In the meantime, Holt instructed election officials to hold off on sending out absentee ballots until noon Friday.
A favorable outcome for Kennedy could bolster Trump's efforts to win North Carolina, a presidential battleground state where Trump won the state's electoral votes by just 1.3 percentage points over Democrat Joe Biden in 2020.
According to the North Carolina State Election Commission, more than 132,500 people, including military personnel, people serving overseas and civilians in the state, have requested absentee ballots in the state so far.
Paul Cox, an attorney for the state board, said in an email that following Friday's ruling, elections officials in all 100 counties have been instructed to keep but not send out current ballots. More than 2.9 million absentee and in-person ballots have been printed so far.
Cox wrote that no decision had been made about appealing Friday's ruling and that removing Kennedy and running mate Nicole Shanahan from the ballot would be “a big task for everyone.”
Since Kennedy suspended her campaign, the environmental activist and author has been trying to remove her name from the ballot in several states where the race between Trump and Democratic candidate Kamala Harris is expected to be close.
Kennedy filed a lawsuit in Wisconsin to remove his name from the state's presidential ballot after the state's elections board voted Wednesday to keep his name on the state's presidential ballot. Kennedy also filed a lawsuit in Michigan, but a judge there ruled Tuesday that his name must remain on the state's ballot.
