Wisconsin election officials may have to use stickers on millions of ballots to cover up Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s name.
On Aug. 27, The Wisconsin Elections Commission turned down Kennedy's appeal to have his name removed from the state's presidential ballot. state law that orders qualified nominees must appear on the ballot unless they die. Kennedy appealed to a different court, which granted the appeal despite the fact that thousands of absentee ballots have already been sent to state voters.
Fun Wisconsin Voting Fact: While the RFK Jr lawsuit to try to remove his name remains pending, over 373,000 absentee ballots have been sent out by Wisconsin clerks in accordance with Wisconsin law.
— Ann Jacobs (@AnnJacobsMKE) September 20, 2024
What does this mean for his lawsuit? No idea. But that's a lot of ballots.
RFK Jr. then asked a court to order that his name, if it cannot be removed, must be covered up on the ballot with a sticker on ballots that have not yet been transported to voters.
Kennedy's appeal has now been taken up by Wisconsin's Supreme Court, bypassing prior rulings. This happened after the state Department of Justice, representing the Wisconsin Elections Commission, asked the justices to take over the case on Thursday.
With fewer than 7 weeks until the 2024 elections, the court wrote that it "will endeavor to issue a written decision as expeditiously as possible."
With fewer than 7 weeks until the 2024 elections, hundreds of thousands of ballots have already been printed in the state of Wisconsin. Municipal clerks tasked with overseeing polling stations would have to place stickers obscuring RFK Jr.'s name on each one, which would amount to thousands of working hours.
Furthermore, it would increase the likelihood of votes being misread, voting machine malfunctions and other ballot errors that could even impact the election outcome.
"With over 1,800 municipal clerks statewide, uniformity of any sticker placement becomes a real concern," said Wood County Clerk Trent Miner, a Republican. "Errant sticker placement would produce an error and return the ballot to the voter, uncounted, again sowing distrust in the tabulation and administration of the election."
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