North Carolina judge rejects RFK Jr.'s request to remove his name from state ballots

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — A North Carolina judge refused to take Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s name off presidential ballots in the battleground state on Thursday, a day before the first batches of November absentee ballots are slated to be sent to registered voters who requested them.

Wake County Superior Court Judge Rebecca Holt denied the temporary restraining order sought by Kennedy to prevent county elections boards from distributing ballots affixed with his name and requiring it to be removed. State law directs the first absentee ballots for the Nov. 5 elections be mailed to requesters starting Friday. A Kennedy attorney said the decision would be appealed and Holt gave him 24 hours, ordering election officials not to send out ballots before noon Friday.

Kennedy got on the ballot in July as the nominee of the new We The People party created by his supporters. The elections board gave official recognition to the party after it collected enough voter signatures. But Kennedy suspended his campaign two weeks ago and endorsed Republican nominee Donald Trump. Since then the environmentalist and author has tried to get his name removed from ballots in several states where the race between Trump and Democratic nominee Kamala Harris are expected to be close.

In North Carolina, Kennedy and We The People of North Carolina wrote to the board asking for his name be withdrawn. But on a party-line vote Aug. 29 the board’s Democratic members denied the party’s request, calling it impractical given the actions already completed to begin ballot distribution on Sept. 6. Kennedy sued the next day.

North Carolina is slated to be the first state in the nation to distribute fall election ballots. County elections offices were expected Friday to send absentee ballots to more than 125,000 in-state and military and overseas voters who asked for them. And over 2.9 million absentee and in-person ballots overall had already been printed statewide as of Wednesday, state elections Executive Director Karen Brinson Bell said in an affidavit.

The process of reprinting ballots without Kennedy’s name and reassembling ballot requests would take at least two weeks, state attorneys said, threatening to miss a federal requirement that ballots be released to military and overseas voters by Sept. 21. But Kennedy lawyer Phil Strach argued in court that Kennedy complied with state law by presenting a written request to step down as the candidate, and that there’s another law allowing the ballot release be delayed under this circumstance. Otherwise, Kennedy’s free-speech rights in the state constitution forcing him to remain on the ballot against his will have been violated, Strach told Holt.

“This is a very straightforward case about ballot integrity and following the law,” Strach said, adding that keeping Kennedy on the ballot would bring confusion to voters who thought he was no longer a candidate.

But Special Deputy Attorney General Mary Carla Babb said the confusion would occur if ballot distribution was delayed, potentially forcing the state to have to seek a waiver of the Sept. 21 federal deadline. State laws and regulations gave the elections board the ability to reject Kennedy’s withdrawal based on whether it was practical to have the ballots reprinted, she said.

“Elections are not just a game and states are not obligated to honor the whims of candidates for public office,” Babb told Holt.

In rejecting Kennedy’s request, Holt said that while the harm imposed upon Kennedy for staying on ballots is minimal, the harm to the state board with such an order would be substantial, such as the reprinting of ballots at considerable cost to taxpayers.

While Kennedy was still an active candidate, the North Carolina Democratic Party unsuccessfully challenged in court the state board’s decision to certify We The People as a party.

Meanwhile in New York on Thursday, a state judge dismissed a lawsuit backed by the Democratic National Committee that sought to keep Kennedy off the state’s November ballot.

The suit had argued that Kennedy submitted some petitions from a campaign subcontractor that used deceptive tactics in order to gather voter signatures, including hiding or obscuring the names of Kennedy and his vice presidential running mate on the sheets. But acting state Supreme Court Justice Robert Bogle, in his 10-page decision, ruled that Kennedy’s campaign had collected more than enough valid signatures, even if all those in question were discounted.

While Kennedy seeks to get off the ballot in North Carolina, he has fought to stay on the one in New York. But Thursday’s decision will not help — another New York judge, in a separate legal challenge, already barred Kennedy from appearing on the state ballot because his petitions listed him as living in New York when he actually resides in California. A mid-level appeals court last week affirmed that ruling, but Kennedy has appealed.

Elsewhere, Kennedy on Wednesday sued in Wisconsin to get his name removed from the presidential ballot there after the state elections commission voted to keep him on it. Kennedy also filed a lawsuit in Michigan but a judge ruled Tuesday that he must remain on the ballot there.

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This story has been corrected to show the name of the North Carolina state attorney is Mary Carla Babb, not Carla Babb.

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Associated Press reporter Philip Marcelo in New York contributed to this story.