LANSING, Mich. (AP) — The highest courts in two states ruled differently Monday on efforts by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to be removed from their presidential ballots. The North Carolina Supreme Court affirmed he should be omitted, while the Michigan Supreme Court reversed a lower court decision and kept him on.
Kennedy suspended his campaign more than two weeks ago and endorsed Republican nominee Donald Trump. He has attempted to have his name removed from ballots in battleground states where the race between Trump and Democratic nominee Kamala Harris is expected to be close.
In Michigan, Kennedy sued Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, a Democrat, on Aug. 30 to remove his name from the ballot to avoid siphoning votes away from Trump, who won Michigan by about 10,000 votes in 2016. The Michigan Supreme Court's decision ensures that Kennedy’s name will appear on voters’ ballots in Michigan despite his withdrawal from the race.
The Michigan Supreme Court stated that Kennedy “has not shown an entitlement to this extraordinary relief.”
In North Carolina, the state Supreme Court ruled 4-3 to deny efforts by the State Board of Elections to have the justices consider overturning a Court of Appeals decision directing that Kennedy be removed from ballots. The Democratic majority on the elections board had rejected a request to withdraw Kennedy from the ballot, citing impracticality due to ballot distribution processes already in motion.
The North Carolina Supreme Court ruling means elections officials will have to reprint ballots without Kennedy and reassemble absentee ballot packets. Over 136,000 absentee ballot requests had been made as of late last week.
The court's order, backed by four of the court's five Republican justices, stated that a vote for Kennedy would not count.
State attorneys for the board estimated it could take two weeks to reprint ballots, potentially violating a federal law requiring absentee ballots to be sent to military and overseas voters by Sept. 21.
In Michigan, justices nominated by Democrats hold a 4-3 majority. The court's order was unsigned, and two Republican-nominated justices wrote a dissenting opinion.
Michigan's secretary of state had previously cited a state law stating that candidates who accept a minor party’s nomination “shall not be permitted to withdraw.”
Both states are now working to ensure the timely printing and distribution of ballots in light of the court decisions.
