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.
