WATERTOWN, Wis. — As county clerks print and distribute ballots to the more than 1,800 city and town clerks who administer Wisconsin's elections, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is still trying to remove his name from the ballot.
Kennedy announced his candidacy on August 6, the deadline for independent candidates in Wisconsin, but on August 25 he ended his presidential run by endorsing former President Donald Trump.
Four days later, the Wisconsin Elections Commission denied his request to remove him from the ballot, citing state law that says the name of a person who filed his candidacy and is eligible to appear on the ballot “shall appear on the ballot unless that person dies.”
Kennedy filed a lawsuit challenging the commission's decision, arguing that state law does not treat third-party candidates and major-party candidates equally. The court denied his request for a preliminary injunction, and the judge is scheduled to issue an oral ruling on Tuesday.
Because Thursday, Sept. 19, is the deadline for mailing absentee ballots to voters on record for the general election, county clerks must deliver the ballots to city clerks by the following day.
Milwaukee County Election Commission Chair Michelle Hawley told The Washington Post that the county has more than 600,000 ballots to print and have already been sent to printers, and that reprinting them will cost about $80,000.
She said printers don't have enough of the special ballot papers needed to reprint ballots.
“It will take days to get the documents and there's no way we'll be able to meet the statutory deadline,” Hawley warned.
She acknowledged that if the court rules in Kennedy's favour, reprinting it would be a “huge challenge”.
The Wisconsin Department of Justice has asked Hawley to submit documents to the court in Kennedy's case about what steps he needs to take to remove Kennedy's name from more than 524 ballots held by the county.
The list of concerns also includes a proposed solution: stickers covering RFK Jr.'s name that would block voting machines equipped with special sensors to weigh ballots.
“In Wisconsin, most clerks are already printing,” Eau Claire County Clerk Sue McDonald told the Post. “Our [ballots] They have already been distributed to city hall clerks.”
Some municipalities “already have the ballots on hand” and are stuffing them into the envelopes for absentee ballot requests.
Kennedy filed a petition for leave to appeal in the Waukesha County Circuit Court last week, asking the court to “act swiftly” to “consider his constitutional claims and remove him from the election.”
McDonald said if a ruling goes in Kennedy's favor in the next few days, the state would also have to reprint ballots this week.
Some city and town election officials are already sending digital ballots to overseas and military voters.
Comparing all presidential candidates, Kennedy still received 6% of the Wisconsin vote, according to a Marquette Law School poll released last week, which also found that he was the best-known third-party candidate on the ballot.
